Will VM be short for Vodafone Media?

[tvtimes]

Oh. Lol.

I thought they were really in the money after selling Verizon. Wasn't it the biggest sale in history?

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by tvtimes

Oh. Lol.

I thought they were really in the money after selling Verizon. Wasn't it the biggest sale in history?

Under the steely eye of Vittorio Colao, chief executive of Vodafone, the company had agreed to offload its 45 per cent stake in US mobile phone giant Verizon Wireless for a whopping $130bn (£84bn).

Of the £84bn, some £54bn of cash and Verizon shares is to make its way back to the pockets of all shareholders including institutional investors such as pension funds and banks.

[1andrew1]

Motley Fool Liberty has a $38bn market cap, and $40.1bn in net debt. Vodafone is worth $95.1bn, and has $34bn in net debt. Depending upon the premium offered by Vodafone, it’s reasonable to assume that the company’s debt would double, or even triple if it went ahead and acquired Liberty.

It depends how Vodafone pays for the acquisition. If it just issued more shares, it wouldn't go further into debt. I therefore suspect any combination would be by means of a merger with parts being sold off, like the Latin American division and maybe some of the German companies to placate the competition authorities there. But at the moment, a combination of Liberty Global and Vodafone seems unlikely in the short term.

[arcimedes]

RNS issued to-day by Vodafone


VODAFONE ANNOUNCEMENT RE MEDIA SPECULATION







Vodafone Group Plc ("Vodafone") notes the recent media speculation regarding a potential transaction between Vodafone and Liberty Global Plc ("Liberty Global").



Vodafone confirms that it is in the early stages of discussions with Liberty Global regarding a possible exchange of selected assets between the two companies.



There is no certainty that any transaction will be agreed, nor is there certainty with respect to which assets will ultimately be involved.



Vodafone is not in discussions with Liberty Global concerning a combination of the two companies.

[1andrew1]

I'm guessing this could see Vodafone acquire Virgin Media in the UK in return for some of Vodafone's European assets. An issue would be the tax losses that VM currently enjoys dating back to when its predecessors invested in the network.

[Stephen]

Well Vodafone are set to launch home TV and BB services fairly shortly and will there for have a Quad play offering, so perhaps they want in on the Cable action too.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

I'm guessing this could see Vodafone acquire Virgin Media in the UK in return for some of Vodafone's European assets. An issue would be the tax losses that VM currently enjoys dating back to when its predecessors invested in the network.

Not necessarily, could see VM take over Vodafone UK mobile operations in return for some European cable assets. - Germany.

Or perhaps nothing will happen.

A good appraisal is in what I posted yesterday in another thread.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/3232...dafone-deja-vu

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Pierre

Not necessarily, could see VM take over Vodafone UK mobile operations in return for some European cable assets. - Germany.

Or perhaps nothing will happen.

A good appraisal is in what I posted yesterday in another thread.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/3232...dafone-deja-vu

The Financial Times thinks Vodafone selling its UK assets extremely unlikely "A sale by Vodafone of its UK business risks causing uproar since it has its headquarters in the country."
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d45ddf0a-0...#axzz3cBFNDcUU (registration needed)

However The Times says "The future of the Vodafone’s presence in its home market has been thrown into doubt after the British business confirmed it was in talks to exchange assets with cable company Liberty Global which owns Virgin Media in the UK."
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/busine...cle4461457.ece (subscription needed for full article).

It's obviously all speculation at this stage.

Originally Posted by Pierre

Not necessarily, could see VM take over Vodafone UK mobile operations in return for some European cable assets. - Germany.

Or perhaps nothing will happen.

A good appraisal is in what I posted yesterday in another thread.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/3232...dafone-deja-vu

Will be interesting to see how this plays out. UK and Germany have been LG's biggest growth areas over the last 2 quarters.

[Horizon]

I reckon Liberty and Vodafone may set up a new company and put Virgin Media, Vodafone UK and the German cablecos within it. Perhaps they might add in Liberty's other European cable assets too.

If Vodafone and Liberty don't want to merge and if Vodafone doesn't want to split into two, I don't see how else they can do this.

They could then, if they go the John Malone way of running things, leverage off VM's debts, thus avoiding a tax bill. John Malone hates paying taxes.

[batchain]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...-Vodafone.html

John Malone is secretly pushing for a full-blown merger of Liberty Global and Vodafone despite asset swap talks.

"Mr Malone’s senior associates have visited the UK on multiple occasions in the past month and have discussed the plans with top 10 Vodafone shareholders, sources said.

The discussions with investors are happening in parallel with talks between Liberty Global and Vodafone itself."

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by batchain

John Malone is secretly pushing for a full-blown merger of Liberty Global and Vodafone despite asset swap talks.

So secretly that the entire internet knows about it?

[arcimedes]

Vofafones's top 10 shareholders hold 1.56% of the company. I would have thought they would need more support than that.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by batchain

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...-Vodafone.html

John Malone is secretly pushing for a full-blown merger of Liberty Global and Vodafone despite asset swap talks.

"Mr Malone’s senior associates have visited the UK on multiple occasions in the past month and have discussed the plans with top 10 Vodafone shareholders, sources said.

The discussions with investors are happening in parallel with talks between Liberty Global and Vodafone itself."

Great find. How can Vodafone negotiate an asset deal with a company doing this, if the article is true?

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

So secretly that the entire internet knows about it?

Indeed.

Originally Posted by arcimedes

Vofafones's top 10 shareholders hold 1.56% of the company. I would have thought they would need more support than that.

Great point, Vodafone really has no shareholders with large stakes in the company at all though I think your 1.56% figure is too low. http://investors.morningstar.com/own...nerCountry=USA

[arcimedes]

Yes looking at the figures again, I notice that they are split into Funds and Institutions which puts the figure up.