Vodafone / Verizon - disconnected The big task for both groups still remains: showing that the deal will pay longer-term What Labor Day holiday? UK-based Vodafone and the US's Verizon Communications may have hummed and hawed for years about the vexed joint ownership of mobile business Verizon Wireless. But the two groups - and copious advisers - made sure the denouement was swift. A $130bn sale of the former's 45 per cent stake to the latter was bagged on Monday, the US holiday notwithstanding. From the seller's side, it is hard to quarrel with the final price. It puts an enterprise value to expected 2013 earnings multiple of about 8.5 times on Verizon Wireless. That is lofty for a non-controlling stake that has not always even paid dividends. The tax bill on the deal - $5bn - is at the lower end of market guesstimates, Vodafone having utilised offshore transaction rules. Tax is payable in the US on non-US assets held by Vodafone's holding company there, alongside the wireless stake. So, net of tax, the Verizon Wireless interest has been sold for 166p per Vodafone share. Two-thirds of that sum will be returned to investors, in a mixture of cash and Verizon shares. That leaves the big question: what now? Vodafone's plan is to redouble its focus on emerging markets and Europe, and retained sale proceeds will help fund this. Its Kabel Deutschland deal made a start in shifting the UK group from a mobile-only strategy to one better-suited to a world where consumers buy bundled packages of fixed and mobile services, but there is plainly more to do. Verizon leverages up its balance sheet but gets free cash flow benefits and earnings enhancement - and could now start to look at deals outside the US market. Vodafone may itself become a bid target, of course, although its scale limits likely offerors. But even that aside, the Vodafone rump does not look expensive. Bar the shouting, the deal is finally done. But the big task for both groups still remains: showing that the deal will pay longer-term.