AT&T Said to Explore Vodafone Takeover as Soon as Next Year

AT&T executives are laying the groundwork internally for a potential takeover of Vodafone Group next year, mapping out a strategy for a complex deal with Europe’s largest mobile carrier, people familiar with the situation said. While the companies haven’t entered formal negotiations, AT&T, the largest US phone company, is intensifying work on which Vodafone assets it would retain after a deal and who could buy others, the people said, declining to be identified discussing private deliberations. AT&T, which remains interested in UK carrier EE as an alternative target, is also formulating a strategy for Vodafone’s operations in Europe, where mobile broadband adoption has lagged the US, the people said. Combined, Vodafone and AT&T would be a globe-spanning telecommunications player with a market capitalization exceeding $250 billion and large-scale operations in the US and across Europe. With more than 500 million wireless subscribers worldwide, the company would be able to challenge Google and Apple when negotiating handset subsidies and wringing profit out of nascent technologies such as mobile advertising.