Member Info for fleccy

"verizon has too much debt and its share price has been falling. No merger. imo"

Time will tell. Colao going back onto the board of Verizon and Read's rapid exit from Vodafone, a month later, hints at the prospect. From what I've read, it was a bit of a surprise when Verizon elected Colao back onto their BOD. As far as Verizon having a lot of debt, it's meaningless, Vodafone took over Mannesmann with an all share deal in 2000.

Verizon and Vodafone merger is still my guess.

"To me, it’s a tacit admission by a technology based company, unable to organise their own technology."

It looks like they're offloading various legacy products that are scheduled for decommissioning and outsourcing a bunch of legacy trained staff in the process. This sort of thing isn't uncommon in companies where products are coming toward end of life.
I've seen similar before; Mercury/C&W used a product called Smartbox, which automatically stored dialed outgoing numbers from analog PBX lines, before prefixing non local numbers with 131 and sending to line, to then route via the BT network onto the Mercury network; When the smartbox products were coming close to end of life, Mercury outsourced their maintenance to a third party company and washed their hands of the service, a number of years after that carrier pre select appeared.
This is normal practice for companies as legacy products approach the end of life and has nothing to do with a companies ability to "organise their own technology". My guess is BT wouldn't do this if it wasn't going to save them money, TCS are probably better equipped to service customers who insist on keeping their old tech right up to the last day it can be used.
The big oil companies do similar with aging oil fields, that are deemed unproductive for them, but specialist companies then go in and turn a profit where the bigger oil companies are no longer interested.

"Just to add, the Goodwill portion of the Net Book valuation is €31.884 and the definition of "Goodwill":"

That should read €31.884 Billion, now you've got me making stuff up too, lol.

Just to add, the Goodwill portion of the Net Book valuation is €31.884 and the definition of "Goodwill":

"Goodwill arises when a company acquires another entire business. The amount of goodwill is the cost to purchase the business minus the fair market value of the tangible assets, the intangible assets that can be identified, and the liabilities obtained in the purchase."

So, Goodwill is important when assessing the value of a company and is part of the Net Book value.

"If a company did close and pay off it's debts, it could only do it with real things, so all the goodwill and intangibles should not be considered. Cautious value investors looking for true value will look at net book. VOD's net book is €0.13 per share. It's a goodwill giant."

More b0ll0x. Honestly, I don't know about the profanity filter on here, they should also add a talking 5h1te filter too. How do you figure €0.13 per share?
With 28,818,256,058 issued shares and your valuation of €0.13 per share, that would value all of Vodafone's assets at just €3.746 Billion, so all of Vodafone's UK and Worldwide assets. If you're going to post a figure like that, you should back it up with calculations listing the relevant asset values. If you read it somewhere, it's pure fantasy.
Vodafone's Net Book value, stated in the 2022 Annual report came in at €53.244 Billion, which is approximately €1.84 per share.

This was linked to yesterday.

"According to the Daily Mail (This is Money), it was an emergency board meeting.

"Read was removed after an emergency board meeting on Sunday. It falls for the moment to Margherita Della Valle, the finance director, to sort out the mess."

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-11504461/ALEX-BRUMMER-Vodafone-looks-like-sitting-duck-overseas-buyers.html "

"The £40b debt looks very dangerous, considering that Vodafone have little to no growth potential, and EE/BT are working to clean up the markets in the UK and EMEA regions."

Claire, I'm a little confused by your post.
EE is a competitor of Vodafone, in the UK, but has been before BT took over EE.
Openreach have introduced Equinox and possibly Equinox 2 early next year, but Vodafone benefits from that as a CP using Openreach/BT Fibre, it's the Altnets that are getting panicky about Equinox.
On the UK business side of things, Vodafone have the old C&W network and again nothing has changed on that front.
You'll have to explain the EMEA regions comment, because I don't see the overlap between the companies.

"Where does this level out or is it now just the beginning of a very painful decline until the company is taken over but who would want to take on 45b debt with no way if paying it back"

Actually, there can be tax advantages to taking over companies carrying debt.

"the use of debt is less expensive than the use of equity because debt is generally subsidized by the state through the tax system –since debtors can deduct the interest payment associated with the use of debt. "

A large entity with lots of cashflow, taking over a company with debt, wouldn't have an issue taking on the debt, and Vodafone's assets are well in excess of the debt anyway. The debt wouldn't prevent a takeover of Vodafone from a big enough player, the deciding factor would the BOD's willingness to go along with the takeover. I keep going back to the takeover of C&WW, by Vodafone, as it's a masterclass in how a BOD falls over itself to help an acquiring company during a takeover. Anyone interested should study the intricacies of the deal, especially since it happened in the same sector.

"Decisions Decisions ! Could this be abit of a rolls royce play crashes badly for awhile then starts to make a slow but strong recovery. "

The only reason for abandoning ship is if you think Vodafone are going to continue dropping with no floor to the price. It seems the market has decided to see how low they can push the price down, possibly to chum the water and looking for predatory movement.

"Same as a ham role i spose. Although I'm vegetarian."

That explains a lot.

"Gary. Come on mate, we all ant to know. Where did you get this, "The dividend is now under review" From?"

He hasn't read anything official stating that, it was mentioned in at least one article that the new CEO should look into the dividend, Gary is just putting his own spin on it.
In all honesty, it wouldn't surprise me if a new CEO does drop the dividend, but it isn't currently being telegraphed. I still think a Vodafone/Verizon merger will be announced in the New Year lol.

There's a limit to how far Vodafone will fall, since Vodafone will start buying back more stock if it drops too low. Vodafone can't be too far from the bottom now, I'm surprised it's dropped as low as it has, I think it'll find its way above £1 again, in the not too distant future.

"Fleccy.. I don't get your post, Please explain. d.jones.says. Given50k budget to find a new replacement. You say 50k given to Read to find a new role. Sounds the same to me? "

Djones appeared to be under the impression that Vodafone are paying a headhunter 50k to find a replacement CEO. What was actually stated is that Read has been awarded a 50k allowance to pay a headhunter, agency, or whatever you want to call them, to help him find a new job.

"Folks holding BT shares got spooked by this and sold in a panic, other folks thought a bargain and bought.
Hence high volume."

Nothing wrong with BT, it's a bargain. For all the talk about Altnets wiping the floor with BT, they soon get a reality check when BT fights back. CityFibre will lose with this complaint, just like they did with the last one.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/9397-cityfibre-makes-official-competition-complaint-against-openreach

"BT eyes overseas markets for its fiber-laying robots"

"A small robot digs underground like a mechanical mole, tugging one of BT's fiber-optic cables to its destination point while technicians sip coffee and supervise. Around the corner, suspended like a cable car, another robot is replacing the final drop wire from the pole to the customer premises. The wasp drill and dropbot, as BT calls them, are potentially the future of broadband buildout, or rather a time- and expense-saving part of that buildout. Born of research at the operator's Adastral Park complex near Ipswich, they could also be a sales opportunity for BT in countries spending billions of dollars on fiber digs."

https://www.lightreading.com/aiautomation/bt-eyes-overseas-markets-for-its-fiber-laying-robots/d/d-id/782161

I said it the wrong way around, BT down 35%, Vod down 29%. I've mentioned on previous threads that DT is the exception due to its T Mobile holding in the US.

A lot of posters talking doom and gloom as if Vodafone is the only Telecom being punished by the market. The true picture is that the sector as a whole is being pushed down, with the Telecom narrative being negatively presented for years. In my opinion, the market is targeting Telecom sector sentiment in order to mop up from nervous retail. As I've said on many occasions, there's a contradiction between the amount of equity fund investment into Telecom infrastructure and the valuation of Telecom companies. To put things in perspective, over the last 6 months BT is down 29% with Vodafone down 35%, so it isn't just Vodafone taking a hammering.

https://www.google.com/finance/quote/BT.A:LON?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjApNPOueT7AhWQg1wKHTiZAUoQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&comparison=LON%3AVOD&window=6M

"Given 50k headhunter budget to find a replacement.
You couldn't make it up."

Djones, you just made that up. I'm not sure if you misread what was stated, or you've put your own slant on it. The 50k you mention has been given to Read to hire a headhunter to find him a new role, not for Vodafone to find a replacement CEO.

"Just waiting for a big institutions sell order limit to be triggered…that’s when the fun starts."

Lol have you moved from running commentary to talking total b0ll0x? The spam force is strong with this one.