'Outrageous greed': Jesse Jackson decries Vodafone's sale of Verizon Wireless stake

Last Monday night, British wireless giant Vodafone agreed to sell its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless to Verizon Communications for a $130 billion.

Which, if you’re Rev. Jesse Jackson, is a great example of terrible greed. How dare one company sell stock it owns to another company!

Here’s a good example of how such outrageous greed works. Earlier this month, Vodafone agreed to sell its 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless, to the tune of $130 billion. To quote Barron’s, “As it happens, the dividend will be eligible for preferential tax treatment.” Of course it will — the 1 percent writes the rules.

Barron’s also noted: “The Vodafone group will incur only about $5 billion in U.S. taxes on the transaction, or just about 4 percent.” You don’t say.

Only $5 billion to the U.S. Treasury! A pittance.

That’s on top of the taxes shareholders will pay on the dividends they receive as a result of the deal.

What is the Reverend’s outrage really all about? Why is he so worked up about a global transaction between telecommunications behemoths? Aha:

Not a single African-American, Latino, or female bond firm will share in the $265 million in fees generated from the mammoth $49 billion bond offering Verizon will use to fund the cash portion of the transaction.

When it comes to outrageous greed, Rev. Jackson certainly is an expert.