What You Were Buying Last Week: Vodafone Group plc (VOD)

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And while it would starve the company of some potentially hefty dividends from Verizon Wireless, it would also remove the nagging uncertainty about whether a dividend will actually be paid at all, an uncertainty that majority shareholder Verizon Communications (which makes the decision to pay out or not) is using to force Vodafone’s hand into selling up.

There’s also the possibility that Vodafone Group plc (LON:VOD) will still launch a bid for Germany’s biggest cable operator, Kabel Deutschland, despite having reached an agreement with Deutsche Telekom in May, under which Vodafone can offer broadband and television services via the German phone company’s network. If successful, a takeover of Kabel Deutschland would increase Vodafone’s access to a major pay-TV and broadband services marketplace, augmenting its mobile provision, and also provide greater potential for business services than the Deutsche Telekom deal allows.

Update: Vodafone announced this morning that it has made a “preliminary approach” regarding a possible offer for Kabel Deutschland, but that “there is no certainty that any offer will ultimately be made nor as to the terms on which any such offer might be made.” The market may not have liked the news, as Vodafone Group plc (LON:VOD) is currently down 4.5%, although some of the drop is because it went ex-dividend today.

And if it were to end up with a bulging war chest from selling its interest in Verizon Wireless, further strategic acquisitions could follow, given CEO Vittorio Colao’s statement earlier this year that Vodafone would launch “unified” service packages — i.e., TV, Internet, and phone bundles — and that he was looking at a number of acquisition targets for delivery.

Of course, no matter what other people were doing last week, only you can decide if Vodafone is currently a potential buy.

The article What You Were Buying Last Week: Vodafone Group originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Jon Wallis.

Jon Wallis owns shares of Vodafone. The Motley Fool recommends Vodafone.

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