Back in September, Verizon and Vodafone came to an agreement for Verizon to buy back the stake that Vodafone had in Verizon Wireless. The agreement was on about $130 billion for Vodafone’s 45% stake in Verizon Wireless. The deal is pretty much done, and approved by the regulators (although we didn’t expect there to be any issues here). But they still had to get the shareholders to approve the deal. Which has now been done, and they expect the deal to close next month. Then who knows what Verizon will have up their sleeve.
The shareholders held a special meeting to vote on this matter, and their consensus was to issue 1.3 billion shares to Vodafone shareholders to complete the transaction. Meanwhile, in London, Vodafone’s shareholders also conducted a vote on the matter today, giving Verizon their approval. Now there is just one last hurdle to jump over, and that’s the High Court of Justice of England and Wales to approve the deal. Verizon and Vodafone are expecting everything to go along with as planned, and the transaction is expected to close on February 21st, give or take a few days.
So we’re one step closer to having Verizon own itself. Which could open the doors for many other things. Like Verizon venturing into Canada, although they’ve denied that, I wouldn’t put it past them. However, when Vodafone owned 45% of Verizon Wireless, they couldn’t buy any other carriers outside of the US. But now that they own themselves again, they can go ahead and buy whoever they want. As long as the shareholders approve, obviously.
For all of you Verizon subscribers out there, are you glad to see Vodafone out of the US, and having Verizon own Verizon Wireless again? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below.
Source: Engadget