lse vod nasdaq vod industry telecommunications predecessor racal millicom 1982 to 1991 founded 1991 ; 25 years ago 1991 headquarters london united kingdom head office newbury berkshire united kingdom registered office area served worldwide key people gerard kleisterlee chairman vittorio colao ceo products fixed line and mobile telephony internet services digital television revenue 40.97 billion 2016 1 operating income 1.37 billion 2016 1 profit 4.02 billion 2016 1 total assets 133.7 billion 2016 1 total equity 65.88 billion 2016 1 number of employees 107 667 2016 1 divisions vodafone global enterprise subsidiaries list vodacom group vodafone albania vodafone australia vodafone czech republic vodafone egypt vodafone faroe islands vodafone germany vodafone ghana vodafone greece vodafone hungary vodafone iceland vodafone india vodafone ireland vodafone italy vodafone malta vodafone netherlands vodafone new zealand vodafone portugal vodafone romania vodafone spain vodafone turkey vodafone qatar vodafone uk vodafone ukraine website www.vodafone.com vodafone group plc vo d fo n is a british multinational telecommunications company with headquarters in london . 2 among mobile operator groups globally vodafone ranked fifth by revenue and second behind china mobile in the number of connections 435.9 million as of 2014 update . 3 vodafone owns and operates networks in 26 countries and has partner networks in over 50 additional countries . 4 its vodafone global enterprise division provides telecommunications and it services to corporate clients in 150 countries . 5 vodafone has a primary listing on the london stock exchange and is a constituent of the ftse 100 index . it had a market capitalisation of approximately 89.1 billion as of 6 july 2012 update the third largest of any company listed on the london stock exchange . 6 it has a secondary listing on nasdaq . contents 1 name 2 history 2.1 evolution as a racal telecom brand 1980 to 1991 2.2 vodafone group then vodafone airtouch plc 1991 to 2000 2.3 vodafone group plc 2000 to present 3 adverts 4 operations 4.1 africa and the middle east 4.2 the americas 4.3 asia pacific 4.4 europe 4.5 vodafone global enterprise 5 products and services 5.1 mobile money transfer services 5.2 mhealth services 5.3 vodafone foundation 6 corporate affairs 6.1 senior management 6.2 financial results 7 criticisms 8 surveillance infrastructure 9 references 10 external links name edit the name vodafone comes from voice data fone the latter a sensational spelling of phone chosen by the company to reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones . 7 history edit the evolution of vodafone started in 1982 with the establishment of the racal strategic radio ltd subsidiary of racal electronics the uk s largest maker of military radio technology which formed a joint venture with millicom called racal which evolved into the present day vodafone . 8 9 10 evolution as a racal telecom brand 1980 to 1991 edit vodafone s original logo used from 1991 to 1997 in 1980 sir ernest harrison obe the then chairman of racal electronics agreed to a deal with lord weinstock of the general electric company to allow racal to access some of gec s tactical battle field radio technology . the head of racal s military radio division gerry whent was briefed by ernest harrison to drive the company into commercial mobile radio . whent visited a mobile radio factory run by general electric unrelated to gec in virginia usa the same year to understand the commercial use of military radio technology . 11 jan stenbeck head of a growing swedish conglomerate set up an american company millicom inc. and approached racal s whent in july 1982 about bidding jointly for the uk s second cellular radio licence . the two struck a deal giving racal 60 % of the new company racal millicom ltd and millicom 40 % . due to uk concerns about foreign ownership the terms were revised and in december 1982 the racal milicom partnership was awarded the second uk mobile phone network license . 12 final ownership of racal millicom ltd was 80 % racal with millicom holding 15 % plus royalties and venture firm hambros technology trust holding 5 % . according to the uk secretary of state for industry the bid submitted by racal millicom ltd provided the best prospect for early national coverage by cellular radio . 13 vodafone was launched on 1 january 1985 under the new name racal vodafone holdings ltd 14 with its first office based in the courtyard in newbury berkshire and 15 shortly thereafter racal strategic radio was renamed racal telecommunications group limited . 16 on 29 december 1986 racal electronics issued shares to the minority shareholders of vodafone worth gb 110 million 17 and vodafone became a fully owned brand of racal . on 26 october 1988 racal telecom majority held by racal electronics went public on the london stock exchange with 20 % of its stock floated . the successful flotation led to a situation where racal s stake in racal telecom was valued more than the whole of racal electronics . under stock market pressure to realise full value for shareholders racal demerged racal telecom in 1991 . 18 19 vodafone group then vodafone airtouch plc 1991 to 2000 edit on 16 september 1991 racal telecom was demerged from racal electronics as vodafone group 20 with gerry whent as its ceo . in july 1996 vodafone acquired the two thirds of talkland it did not already own for 30.6 million . 21 on 19 november 1996 in a defensive move vodafone purchased peoples phone for 77 million a 181 store chain whose customers were overwhelmingly using vodafone s network . 22 in a similar move the company acquired the 80 % of astec communications that it did not own a service provider with 21 stores . 23 in january 1997 gerald whent retired and christopher gent took over as the ceo . the same year vodafone introduced its speechmark logo composed of a quotation mark in a circle with the o s in the vodafone logotype representing opening and closing quotation marks and suggesting conversation . on 29 june 1999 vodafone completed its purchase of airtouch communications inc. and changed its name to vodafone airtouch plc. the merged company commenced trading on 30 june 1999 . 24 in order to gain anti trust approval for the merger vodafone sold its 17.2 % stake in e plus mobilfunk . 25 the acquisition gave vodafone a 35 % share of mannesmann owner of the largest german mobile network . on 21 september 1999 vodafone agreed to merge its u.s. wireless assets with those of bell atlantic corp to form verizon wireless . 26 the merger was completed on 4 april 2000 just a few months prior to bell atlantic s merger with gte to form verizon communications inc. in november 1999 vodafone made an unsolicited bid for mannesmann which was rejected . vodafone s interest in mannesmann had been increased by the latter purchase of orange the uk mobile operator . 27 chris gent would later say mannesmann s move into the uk broke a gentleman s agreement not to compete in each other s home territory . 28 the hostile takeover provoked strong protest in germany and a titanic struggle which saw mannesmann resist vodafone s efforts . however on 3 february 2000 the mannesmann board agreed to an increased offer of 112 billion then the largest corporate merger ever . 28 the eu approved the merger in april 2000 when vodafone agreed to divest the orange brand which was acquired in may 2000 by france t l com . the conglomerate was subsequently broken up and all manufacturing related operations sold off . vodafone group plc 2000 to present edit the headquarters of vodafone romania in bucharest on 28 july 2000 the company reverted to its former name vodafone group plc. in 2001 the company acquired eircell the largest wireless communications company in ireland from eircom . 29 eircell was subsequently rebranded as vodafone ireland . vodafone then went on to acquire japan s third largest mobile operator j phone which had introduced camera phones first in japan . 30 on 17 december 2001 vodafone introduced the concept of partner networks by signing tdc mobil of denmark . the new concept involved the introduction of vodafone international services to the local market without the need of investment by vodafone . the concept would be used to extend the vodafone brand and services into markets where it does not have stakes in local operators . vodafone services would be marketed under the dual brand scheme where the vodafone brand is added at the end of the local brand . i.e. tdc mobil vodafone etc. 31 in 2007 vodafone entered into a title sponsorship deal with the mclaren formula one team which traded as vodafone mclaren mercedes until the sponsorship ended at the end of the 2013 season . 32 33 in may 2011 vodafone group plc bought the remaining shares of vodafone essar from essar group ltd for 5 billion . 34 on 1 december 2011 it acquired the reading based bluefish communications ltd an ict consultancy company . 35 the acquired operations formed the nucleus of a new unified communications and collaboration practice within its subsidiary vodafone global enterprise 35 which will focus on implementing strategies and solutions in cloud computing and strengthen its professional services offering . in april 2012 vodafone announced an agreement to acquire cable & wireless worldwide cww for 1.04 billion . 36 vodafone was advised by ubs ag while barclays and rothschild advised cable & wireless . 36 the acquisition will give vodafone access to cww s fibre network for businesses enabling it to take unified communications solutions to large enterprises in uk and globally ; and expand its enterprise service offerings in emerging markets . on 18 june 2012 cable & wireless shareholders voted in favour of the vodafone offer exceeding the 75 % of shares necessary for the deal to go ahead . 37 38 on 24 june 2013 vodafone announced it would be buying german cable company kabel deutschland . the takeover is valued at 7.7 billion and was recommended over the bid of rival liberty global . 39 on 2 september 2013 vodafone announced it would be selling its 45 % stake in verizon wireless to verizon communications for 130 billion in one of the biggest deals in corporate history . 40 in october 2013 vodafone began its rollout of 4g to provincial new zealand with the launch of the system in holiday hotspots around coromandel . 41 in february 2014 vodafone made an offer to acquire spain s largest cable operator ono in a deal rumoured to be around 7 billion . 42 adverts edit since 2010 the adverts feature two bees named jack and mike who are voiced by karl theobald and dan antopolski . other adverts feature star wars character yoda . idris elba does voice over for adverts . operations edit africa and the middle east edit networks in the middle east and africa majority owned minority owned partner networks dr congo1 egypt kenya kuwait ghana lesotho1 bahrain mozambique1 qatar2 libya tanzania1 south africa1 uae 1majority stakes held through majority owned vodacom group 2effective ownership is not majority but full control exercised by the group . egypt in november 1998 the vodafone egypt network went live under the name clickgsm . on 8 november 2006 the company announced a deal with telecom egypt resulting in further cooperation in the egyptian market and increasing its stake in vodafone egypt . after the deal vodafone egypt was 55 % owned by the group while the remaining 45 % was owned by telecom egypt . on 28 january 2011 vodafone complied with egyptian government instructions to suspend internet service in selected areas during a period of anti mubarak protests . the company issued a statement that under egyptian legislation the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply