Technology
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Timeline: Verizon and Vodafone's long relationship
NEW YORK
NEW YORK Verizon Communications has hired advisers to prepare a possible $100 billion cash and stock bid to take full control of Verizon Wireless from its partner Vodafone, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
It is the latest twist in a long relationship between the two telecommunications giants. Following is a timeline charting their history together:
1994
June: U.S. regional phone company Bell Atlantic forms a wireless partnership with neighboring peer NYNEX covering 55 million potential customers. Verizon today calls this deal the beginnings of what is now Verizon Wireless.
1996
April: Bell Atlantic and NYNEX agree to an outright merger.
1998
July: Bell Atlantic and peer GTE agree to merge.
1999
January: Britain's Vodafone says it will buy U.S. wireless company AirTouch Communications.
September: Bell Atlantic and Vodafone AirTouch Plc agree to combine their U.S. wireless companies, including Bell Atlantic Mobile and AirTouch Cellular, into a single joint venture.
2000
April: The Bell Atlantic/Vodafone AirTouch joint venture is approved, and begins operations as Verizon Wireless.
June: The Bell Atlantic/GTE merger closes, creating Verizon Communications. At that time, GTE's wireless operations are added into Verizon Wireless.
At that point Verizon Communications became majority owner of the wireless joint venture, with a 55 percent stake.
2004:
February: Vodafone loses out in the bidding to buy AT&T; Wireless, a deal that would have let the company bring its brand to the United States but also might have forced it to sell its Verizon Wireless stake.
Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin says Vodafone will sit down with Verizon and discuss the future of their partnership.
September: Sarin says both Vodafone and Verizon would like to have bigger stakes in their joint venture, creating an impasse between the two.
In 2004 the joint venture pays its parents dividends of $3.2 bln in two installments.
2005
Verizon Wireless pays dividends of about $1.997 billion to its parents and distributions to cover its parents' tax payments. While it pays its parents billions of dollars in the coming years to cover tax obligations, its next non-tax related payout is not announced until 2011, causing friction between them.
2007
July: Vodafone denies reports it is considering a $160 billion to take over Verizon Communications in its entirety as a way to consolidate their venture.
2008
July: Vittorio Colao is appointed Chief Executive of Vodafone, replacing Sarin. Colao had been on the board since October 2006.
2009
January: Verizon Wireless completes a $28.1 billion acquisition of regional carrier Alltel that includes the assumption of $22 .2 billion in debt. For years it said it was withholding dividends to its parents in order to use its cash to pay off the debt incurred in the Alltel deal.
2011
July: Lowell McAdam is named CEO of Verizon Communications replacing Ivan Seidenberg. Before McAdam became COO of Verizon in 2010 he had served as CEO of Verizon Wireless.
2012
January: Verizon Wireless pays its parents a dividend of $10 billion. It had announced plans to pay a dividend in July 2011.
December: Verizon Wireless pays an $8.5 billion dividend.
2013
January: The year kicks off with reports Verizon could consider a purchase of the Verizon Wireless stake. CEO McAdam tells Dow Jones a deal could be "feasible" but then tells Reuters the companies were not in talks about a deal at the time.
March: Speculation is rampant again after a Bloomberg report that Verizon is eying a resolution to the Vodafone relationship this year. Sources tell Reuters that Vodafone has lawyers and bankers looking at deal options.
April 3: Verizon repeated its long stated desire to buy out Vodafone's 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless, says has no intention of pursuing a Verizon/Vodafone merger in response to speculation.
April 18: Verizon CFO Fran Shammo says his company is confident it could buy Vodafone's Verizon Wireless stake without major tax implications. This is seen by investors as a sign that Verizon is applying pressure on Vodafone to discuss a deal.
April 24: Reuters reports that Verizon is preparing a $100 billion bid for the stake and could use a structure that could limit Vodafone's tax obligation to $5 billion or less.
Sources: Verizon corporate history, Reuters, other news services
(Reporting by Chelsea Emery, Ben Berkowitz and Sinead Carew; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
