Vodafone Earnings: Verizon Funds to Be Spent in Europe

Vodafone Group said that it will keep the $3.15 billion dividend payment it will receive from Verizon Wireless and plow it into its flagging operations in Europe, which weighed heavily on the mobile operator's full-year profit.

With its extensive operations in troubled Europe under siege from intense competition and regulatory changes, Vodafone is in need of a reboot to keep pace with rivals whose popular bundled offers of mobile, fixed-line, television and Internet services are leaving the U.K.-based company isolated as a mobile-only competitor. Cash flows at the businesses Vodafone controls are clearly under pressure. Emerging markets and services for business customers aren't enough to offset troubles in Southern Europe. Vodafone's investment demands are also rising as it transforms itself from a Europe-heavy wireless operator to a more balanced telecommunications group with a bigger fixed-line business.