Vodafone’s chief executive, Vittorio Colao, isn’t sitting around the sidelines anymore watching things go by without any say in the matter of their stake in Verizon Wireless. It seems that he is frustrated that Verizon, which has about 87.7 million customers and took in $58.6 billion in revenue last year, has not come out to show even one paid dividend in four years. Vodafone of course has a major stake in Big Red at 45 percent. Surprisingly at a recent Goldman Sach’s media conference in New York, Colao stated that “Verizon Wireless is and has been a good investment.” It’s not just Colao who raised ears, but Vodafone’s board continues to re-look at the situation – they examine other options “regularly”, but “for the time being we are here.” Vodafone’s finance director, Andy Halford, has indicated that Verizon may soon start paying out dividends in late 2011 – hopefully before they start clearing out their $30 billion in debts. Vodafone has been hit hard with the tough economy and the dwindling revenue as consumers cut back on mobile phone calls. They’re prone amid this downturn and plan on making some some job cuts in the next couple of months. We’ll have to wait and see if they plan on sticking around with their joint venture with Big Red.

source: Telegraph.co.uk