Vodafone eyeing Vivendi stake vis-à-vis Vizzavi

Lots of Vs

Vodafone could be about to buy out Vivendi Universal's stake in the companies' mobile portal joint venture, Vizzavi. Vivendi last week posted large losses and write-downs and reports emerged that it would no longer fund the ailing portal, one day expected to integrate 3G telephony with advanced web services. Today's Wall Sreet Journal quotes "people familiar with the talks" saying Vodafone may pay as much as E150m for Vivendi's stake. The companies have already ploughed around $1bn into the company.