April 4th, 2011 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | No Comments »
Vodafone has sold off their 44% in SFR to Vivendi. Vivendi already was the ‘other’ major stakeholder in the company, making it effectively theirs.
Vivendi paid Vodafone €7.75 billion for the transaction and Vodafone is to receive another $200 million dividend when the operation is completed in Q2. Though SFR will no longer be part of the Vodafone group, roaming agreements will continue to exist, so the consumer will not notice too much of it.
Next to SFR, Vodafone is also much rumoured to be selling off their stake in Verizon. To date, it never happened though it could pump a lot of money into the Vodafone group. There are a few other carriers Vodafone has a share in as well like Polkomtel (PL) and Proximus (BE).