{"id":144589,"date":"2025-11-20T11:09:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T11:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/144589\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T11:09:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T11:09:14","slug":"vodafone-chief-bets-on-selling-ai-and-cyber-security-to-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/144589\/","title":{"rendered":"Vodafone chief bets on selling AI and cyber security to businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

Vodafone is planning a fresh push into cloud, artificial intelligence and cyber security services to help fund higher dividends, as chief executive Margherita Della Valle sets her sights on faster growth after reshaping the FTSE 100 telecoms group\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n

Della Valle told the Financial Times in an interview that she wanted revenues from business customers to make up roughly 50 per cent of the total across the group in the medium term, up from between 25 and 30 per cent today. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey [B2B revenues] could be much more than that,\u201d she said, adding that Vodafone\u2019s UK revenues were split more evenly between businesses and consumers. \u201cIt could be like this in other markets as well,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Since taking over in January 2023 Della Valle has doubled down on Vodafone\u2019s home market through this year\u2019s \u00a316.5bn merger with Three, and sold struggling operations in Europe. <\/p>\n

The Italian executive finalised a deal to sell Vodafone Italy to Swisscom for \u20ac8bn in January and offloaded<\/a> its Spanish operations to UK-listed peer Zegona for \u20ac5bn last May.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Investors have begun to warm towards Della Valle\u2019s approach this year, helping Vodafone\u2019s shares rally off 20-year lows. The company announced its first dividend increase<\/a> in seven years this month, and guided towards the upper end of its 2026 financial forecast after a return to service-revenue growth in its largest market, Germany.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Line<\/p>\n

Della Valle described the asset disposals as \u201cdifficult\u201d, particularly the sale of the Italian unit<\/a> where she began her career. \u201cUnfortunately, the Italian market\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. had been destroying value for telco players for many years and it didn\u2019t make sense to [continue],\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat matters is where we are today: stronger, with the outlook of growth,\u201d Della Valle added.<\/p>\n

Vodafone provides mobile, broadband and other connectivity services in 15 countries, generating revenues of \u20ac37.4bn last year. The telecoms group\u2019s chief said she was now happy with Vodafone\u2019s core portfolio, which includes significant operations in Germany and Turkey. <\/p>\n

Della Valle added, however, that changes were possible in Vodafone\u2019s so-called investments division, which houses its 50 per cent stake in Dutch operator VodafoneZiggo and its holding in OXG, a German fibre network joint venture with Patrick Drahi\u2019s Altice. <\/p>\n

Liberty Global, which owns the other 50 per cent of VodafoneZiggo, has previously tried to buy<\/a> Vodafone\u2019s stake in the company.<\/p>\n

Della Valle said the growth needed to sustain a \u201cprogressive dividend\u201d policy would come from combining \u201ctraditional core connectivity\u201d with \u201cdigital services,\u201d particularly to small and medium-sized business customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[These} go all the way from helping people to go and leverage the cloud, manage their website, manage their cyber security\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009all the way to leverage AI for example,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MargheritaMargherita Della Valle said selling Vodafone\u2019s Italian unit, where she started her career, was a difficult decision \u00a9 Charlie Bibby\/FT<\/p>\n

Vodafone provides businesses with advice on transitioning to cloud-based software and access to third-party software providers. It also offers AI tools, such as chatbots which can answer employee questions 24\/7, and cyber threat detection services.<\/p>\n

However the plans to grow B2B revenues were met with scepticism by some analysts. James Ratzer at New Street Research said B2B growth always \u201cseemed to be a jam tomorrow story\u201d that had failed to deliver.<\/p>\n

\u201cVodafone\u2019s European business revenues haven\u2019t grown for the last\u00a018\u00a0months,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Della Valle reiterated Vodafone\u2019s plan to double its broadband customers<\/a> to more than 4.3mn in the UK by 2034. She added that the company was open to signing new deals to use other providers\u2019 fibre networks, such as that operated by Virgin Media O2, if conditions were right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-144589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}