Verizon buys out Vodafone stake for $130 billion

Verizon Communications agreed Monday to buy back British telecommunications company Vodafone's 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless for $130 billion. The purchase is set to be the third largest acquisition in corporate history.

Vodafone will receive $58.9 billion in cash, $60.2 billion in Verizon stock and an additional $11 billion from smaller transactions in the deal, which leaves Verizon with 100 percent ownership of the largest mobile operator in the United States.

Verizon chief executive Lowell McAdam told the Financial Times that the deal is "transformational" and that the U.S. wireless industry is ready "to have a whole new turn of growth" driven by mobile data and the expansion of LTE technology.

The change isn't expected to have much of an effect on Verizon consumers or on its operations. Vodafone had little influence on Verizon Wireless' operations.

Verizon has had a long-standing interest in buying out its partner, but the two companies couldn't agree on a price until now. The two companies had been partnered for 14 years.

Al Jazeera and wire services