Mobile phone group Vodafone is to hold on to its 45% stake in fast-growing US mobile phone joint venture Verizon Wireless.
Vodafone, the world's second-largest mobile phone company by customers, had until Thursday to sell up to $10 billion worth of its stake in Verizon Wireless, which analysts have valued at $45 billion.
Vodafone shareholders have been frustrated that the value of Verizon Wireless, which is controlled by US telecoms heavyweight Verizon Communications, is not fully reflected in Vodafone's share price and that the unit is not expected to reinstate dividend payments until at least 2009.
But company investors last month overwhelmingly rejected calls by a small activist shareholder, Efficient Capital Structures (ECS), for Vodafone to spin off the stake into a separately listed company.
Vodafone Chief Executive Arun Sarin has said only that the British-based company is examining all options in the United States, which contributes over 20% of the firm's underlying group operating profit.
Verizon Communications, the second-largest US telecoms operator, has long voiced its willingness to buy out Vodafone.
