It wasn’t all that long ago when we heard talk of Verizon buying out Vodafone’s share of Verizon Wireless, however as of today it looks like the Vodafone related rumors have taken another turn. This latest rumor has Verizon partnering up with AT&T in an effort to make a bid for Vodafone. The details are coming by way of the Financial Times’ Alphaville blog who have the price at $245 billion.
Just to give a background as to the size we are talking here, as if the $245 billion price tag was not enough, according to revenue, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone and AT&T are the second, third and fourth largest carriers. Looking at these three from subscribers and we see something different. In this case we have Vodafone as the world’s second largest with Verizon Wireless and AT&T coming in at 16th and 18th.
As with any carrier to carrier purchase, this would likely arrive with several hurdles. Regulatory hurdles aside, there is another side to this that does bring some question. For one, there has been plenty of Vodafone and Verizon chatter over the years that has yet to actually happen. Touching back on those earlier details about Verizon buying out Vodafone’s share of Verizon Wireless. At present, Vodafone has a 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless and that would mean a purchase price of roughly $115 billion.
Aside from a purchase, the two companies could also merge, however there are other issues involved should Verizon go that route. Bottom line here, it looks like we now have another Verizon, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone rumor to digest and while it is unclear as to which way this will work out at the moment — one thing seems clear in that the rumors appear to be heating up quite a bit lately.
[via GigaOm]
Wait…Vodafone is worth 245 billion?!