The price Verizon might pay to buy out its mobile subsidiary, reportedly $100 billion or more, is the most important thing that mobile users need to know about the potential deal.
Vodafone Group, which owns 45 percent of Verizon Wireless, confirmed on Thursday that it is in talks with Verizon Communications to sell its minority stake to the U.S. parent company. Vodafone cautioned that there's no guarantee they'll be able to make a deal, but the companies have talked about it before and may be more motivated than ever. Verizon declined to comment.
If Verizon does take the leap, it's likely to be the biggest telecommunications deal in U.S. history. But consumers shouldn't look for big changes in mobile phones or services from Verizon after its wireless partner is sent packing, industry analysts said. If anything, they might just take it as one more sign that they're well-loved.
"It just shows you how attractive this market is," said analyst Roger Entner of Recon Analytics. The Verizon Wireless deal would come on top of several other transactions in the billions just over the past year: Japan's SoftBank bought control of Sprint for $21.6 billion, T-Mobile paid $1.5 billion plus stock for MetroPCS, and AT&T agreed to buy Leap Wireless at a total cost of nearly $1.2 billion.
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