Marketplace®

Daily business news and economic stories

Verizon strikes $130 billion deal for Vodafone

Today, Verizon Communications agreed to buy out Vodafone's 45 percent stake in its giant wireless unit for $130 billion.

Verizon Communications brokered a deal today with Vodafone, valued at $130 billion — that makes it the second largest acquisition ever.

The deal probably won’t affect Verizon’s 100 million subscribers. Unlike some of the telecom deals we’ve been seeing lately — like Softbank’s acquisition of Sprint or T-Mobile’s acquisition of MetroPCS — this isn’t a deal that promises to bring more competition to the industry or lower costs for consumers.

For Wall Street, on the other hand, the deal is making a splash. There’s a stock component, with $60 billion or so that Verizon will pay out in stocks. In addition, Verizon has to raise money on the bond market to get the cash to pay Vodafone. The deal is therefore expected to bring a lot of business to all those people on Wall Street who make these types of deals happen.

Right now, Vodafone has a 45 percent stake in Verizon’s wireless business. These are consumers Verizon is already controlling — but has been splitting the profits with Vodafone.

And this has been problematic for Verizon for a few reasons. Wireless is considered to be Verizon’s biggest area of future growth. But because of the deal, Verizon couldn’t fully claim that growth on its income statement. So for example, the Wall Street Journal says that Verizon made $10.6 billion in 2012 — but because the bulk of it came from its joint venture with Vodafone — Verizon could only book a profit $875 million on its income statement.

If the deal gets all the green lights, it could get a great welcome on Wall Street.  Investors will like Verizon’s new growth on its income statement.  And  presumably, in the future, Verizon’s wireless business will continue grow and make more money.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the value of the stock component of the deal. It is about $60 billion. The text has been corrected.

Related Topics

Tagged as:

Latest Episodes

View All Shows
  • Marketplace Morning Report
    25 minutes ago
    7:00
  • Marketplace Tech
    3 hours ago
    10:28
  • Marketplace
    14 hours ago
    25:43
  • Make Me Smart
    21 hours ago
    19:54
  • Million Bazillion
    a day ago
    28:24
  • How We Survive
    5 days ago
    25:04
  • This Is Uncomfortable
    5 days ago
    26:12
  • Financially Inclined
    3 months ago
    12:30
  • The Uncertain Hour
    4 months ago
    22:50
  • Corner Office from Marketplace
    5 years ago
    20:58