March 17 (Reuters) - Vodafone Group Plc agreed tobuy Spain's largest cable operator Ono for 7.2 billion euros($10 billion) in the latest move by the British group to expandits European operations with a broadband offering.
Having reaped a $130 billion windfall by selling its stakein Verizon Wireless to its partner Verizon Communications Inc, Vodafone was left with an acquisition war chest of asmuch as $40 billion even after distributing the majority of thesale proceeds to shareholders and investing billions in itsnetwork.
Following is a chronology of key recent events involvingVodafone:
* Feb 13 - Vodafone and Bharti Airtel buy Indianairwaves worth about $3 billion each in a hotly contestedauction.
* Feb 10 - Vodafone chief Vittorio Colao says group couldhave the capacity to spend between $30 billion and $40 billionon acquisitions in coming years and no deal should be too big ifit makes strategic sense. He tells reporters he is exploringpossibilities for a potential shopping spree on big acquisitionson top of investments in Vodafone's existing business.
* Feb 6 - Vodafone wins Indian cabinet's approval for $1.6billion deal to buy out minority partners in its unit in thecountry.
* Jan 27 - AT&T rules out bid for Vodafone after Britain'stakeover watchdog asks it to clarify its position followingreports it had sounded out European regulators on prospects of amerger. AT&T's statement means it cannot make an offer forVodafone for at least six months, unless the British companyinvites it to do so or a third party enters the fray.
2013
* Nov 12 - Vodafone says it will spend 7 billion pounds toincrease the speed and coverage of its networks and reverse arecord fall in revenue resulting from its struggling Europeanbusiness. Says it will spend 3 billion pounds in Europe, 1.5billion in emerging markets and the rest on fixed-line assets,enterprise and its retail arm.
* Sept 2 - Verizon agrees to pay $130 billion to buyVodafone out of its U.S. wireless business, allowing the UKgroup to return 71 percent of the net proceeds - or $84 billion- to shareholders while also ramping up investment in itsnetworks.
* June 24 - Vodafone agrees to buy Germany's largest cableoperator Kabel Deutschland for 7.7 billion euros, adding TV andfixed-line services to help defend against mounting competitionin its most important market.
* March 13 - Vodafone and Orange to invest up to 1billion euros in a joint fibre optic network in Spain that willbring superfast Internet to millions of homes.
2012
* Vodafone buys Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW) for $1.6billion, giving it a fixed-line network in Britain.