Not as in “a handset” but as in “the whole Australian part of the company”. It’s being rumoured that Vodafone is up for sale, although the telco itself is denying the rumours.
The Australian reports on the rumours, which state that an information memorandum has been quietly distributed to a number of potentially interested buyers, including Qtel, Etisalat, Korea Telecom, NTT Docomo and China Telecom.
Vodafone’s certainly been through a rocky period of late; the report notes that Vodafone lost $336 million in 2011 and saw its customer base shrink by 179,000 in the six months to December. In the same timeframe, Optus gained 313,000 customers and Telstra took on an additional 958,000. More: Vodafone — First The Network Went, Now The Jobs
Vodafone Australia remains vehement, however, that the rumours are just rumours, telling the paper that
“Vodafone remains fully committed to our operations in Australia and our sole focus is on the turnaround of the business,