Vodafone boss makes history with sale

Vodafone Group chief executive 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 of US dollars in profits, it was out of his control because Vodafone held just 45 per cent.

This week, he did it, getting US$130 billion in the biggest deal in a decade.

"It's a great asset; it's an asset with a fantastic team managing it," Colao said in a television interview. "We got the value that a good asset deserves."

The stake's sale fits with the 51-year-old surfer's mantra, according to a person close to him, who asked not to be identified recounting private conversations: "Ride the wave, don't try to dominate it. Otherwise, it'll kill you."

It took Colao, the son of a policeman, five years to clinch the Verizon Wireless deal, a wait that paid off as Vodafone held out for US$130 billion, US$30 billion more than New York-based Verizon was said to have proposed at the start of this year.