VODAFONE GROUP says it walked away from the auction to buy United States mobile phone operator AT&T Wireless this week after concluding 'it was no longer in [our] shareholders' best interests to continue discussions'. Others see that claim as a face saver.
True, shareholders were growing increasingly uncomfortable with chief executive Arun Sarin's determination to outbid the US market's third-largest player, Cingular Wireless, in an auction that had already seen him put up more than US$38 billion.
But there is some speculation Vodafone lost out because Cingular caught Mr Sarin and his executives asleep with a surprise overnight offer of $40.7 billion.
Perhaps it should not matter. The deal is lost either way and Vodafone's share price rocketed 5.6 per cent in London on Tuesday as the market celebrated Vodafone's failure to spend its money.
The recovery went part of the way to recouping the 8 per cent knocked off Vodafone's shares in the weeks since the company first announced its interest in the deal.
From the very beginning, analysts felt the price was too high for an acquisition that would have meant the sale of Vodafone's existing - and lucrative - minority holding in America's largest mobile company, Verizon Wireless.
It does, however, matter whether Mr Sarin walked away from the deal or was tricked out of it.