Executive Summary
Vodafone has developed from one of the UK's first two mobile networks to a global mobile communications company. It has acquired stakes in mobile network providers in Europe, Asia, Africa and the USA, and its stated aim is to become 'the global communications leader'[1]. It is already the leading mobile telephony provider in the world, both through its own operations and through joint ventures and minority stakes such as its holding in US provider Verizon.
Company History
- 1982 - Racal Electronics wins one of two UK cellular licences
- 1988 - 20% of the company floated
- 1991 - demerged from Racal as Vodafone Group
- 1996 - acquires Talkland and Peoples Phone
- 1999 - acquisition of Airtouch Communications giving it a 35% stake in Mannesmann; merger of US assets with Bell Atlantic's to form Verizon Wireless
- 2000 - acquisition of Mannesmann; all businesses other than the German mobile business were sold off.
- 2007 - acquisition of Indian business
- Jan 2009 - Verizon Wireless acquires Alltel
Current Events
- Recently outbid for 4th place operator, T-Mobile by Orange [2]
Business Model
Vodafone owns mobile network operators around the world. In Europe, these include UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Spain, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania and Turkey. In Africa, it wons 50% of Vodacom in South Africa, and has operations in Ghana and Kenya. In Asia Pacific and the Middle East, it has operations in Australia, New Zealand, Egypt and India. In the US, it owns a 35% stake in Verizon Wireless. In FY2009, Asia Pacific and the Middle East saw revenue growth of 32.3%, by far the highest in the group; India in particular has been growing strongly. Because of the differences in markets and regulation, each of the businesses is operated as a separate subsidiary.
Vodafone has recognised the way that mobile networks in Europe are becoming mature, by changing its strategy to refocus away from a stress on growth to place more emphasis on cash generation.
Products/Services
Vodafone's main revenue comes from voice mobile telephony, which accounts for £ 26.9bn of its revenue. However voice has been growing at only 11.4%, the lowest growth in the group; voice is not growing at all in the more mature markets, such as Europe. Increasingly, growth for voice services will come from Vodafone's emerging markets, such as Turkey and India. While services other than voice provide only…
