Vodafone’s Surfer CEO Colao Dismantles Global Empire

Vodafone Group Chief Executive Officer Vittorio Colao has cemented his legacy as the man who shrank the world’s biggest mobile-phone company and cleansed it of past excesses.

In November 2009, just over a year after taking the helm, the former McKinsey & Co. partner said that his mission was to “solve” Verizon Wireless. While the venture with Verizon Communications -- now the biggest US mobile-phone company -- was a source of billions in profits, it was out of his control because Vodafone held just 45 percent. It took Colao five years in office to clinch the Verizon Wireless deal, a wait that paid off as Vodafone held out for $130 billion, $30 billion more than the New York-based company was said to have proposed at the start of this year by people familiar with Verizon’s plans. In his five years as CEO, Colao has unwound the globe-spanning empire his predecessors built, emphasizing profitability over maintaining Vodafone’s size. As he cut holdings in France, Japan, Poland and China and focused on getting out of what Vodafone didn’t control, China Mobile usurped it by revenue in 2010. Today Vodafone trails the Chinese carrier by revenue and subscribers.