Mobile phone giant Vodafone is braced for a further round of boardroom fighting after comments from Sir Christopher Gent that, in effect, accused some directors of hounding him out of his position as honorary life president.
He resigned from the post at the weekend and issued a public statement saying he had taken the decision "after considerable thought and with much regret".
But Sir Christopher has told company insiders that his deeper motivation was to prevent the Vodafone affair from damaging his authority at GlaxoSmithKline, where he is non-executive chairman. Senior executives at the pharmaceutical group were said to be increasingly concerned that their chairman was being distracted from his main job.
Sir Christopher is said to feel he was being "lampooned and lambasted" by a campaign supposedly orchestrated by members of the mobile phone company's board. His bitterness is understood to be reflected in a private letter he faxed to Vodafone's directors almost simultaneously with his public statement on Sunday.
The company would only say: "We have received a letter from Sir Christopher that formally severs his links with the company."
The extraordinary lack of trust between boardroom colleagues may mean there are more resignations to come before the affair is settled. Sir Christopher's public statement referred to "a disinformation campaign intended to manipulate the press" but did not name the supposed plotters. His private letter is said to make it clear that he thinks the authors were current members of the board.
Gent, widely credited with transforming Vodafone from a small British company into a global giant, said he had quit his position as life president and denied he had used his honorary post to "obstruct current management". "If there is a whispering campaign or conspiracy, which I very much doubt, then I am not party to it," Gent said
Vodafone, one of Britain's most admired companies, has for the past week been dogged by reports of a split at its top and the presence of opposing camps of directors - the old guard comprising chairman Lord MacLaurin and Gent, and the new guard led by chief executive Arun Sarin.
Gent, who was reported to have considered voting against Sarin's re-election last year, said he had never communicated on issues concerning Vodafone with either the media or shareholders since retiring in July 2003.
"When I was an executive... relationships within the company and at board level were characterised by openness and trust. We were mercifully free of company politics and blame culture," said Gent, who engineered Vodafone's €178 billion historic purchase of Germany's Mannesmann in 2000.
MacLaurin attempted to heal the rifts with a statement of support for Sarin and claimed the two were "best mates".
The display of loyalty has not been welcomed on all sides. Some are critical that Lord MacLaurin failed to address a central issue: whether he canvassed non-executives and major investors about replacing Sarin.
The prevailing mood among institutional shareholders appears to be frustration. One said: "The more time they spend squabbling amongst themselves, the less they have to address the share price underperformance."
Sarin, under whose watch Vodafone's revenue growth has started to slow - leading to growing investor disquiet over its strategy - appeared to have strengthened his position after receiving Lord MacLaurin's public backing.
Gent's exit from the company will be viewed as a victory for the India-born Sarin who, analysts and industry watchers say, is purging the group of the so-called old guard.
Last week Vodafone axed its marketing chief, Peter Bamford, who was considered to be close to Gent. Another old-timer, deputy chief executive Julian Horn-Smith, is stepping down in July. MacLaurin is also stepping down in July and will be replaced by HSBC chairman John Bond.
The upheaval at Vodafone comes at a time when the company is under pressure to reconsider its strategy of being a global player and sell some assets to return cash to investors.
US telecoms giant Verizon Communications is reported to have made an informal approach to Vodafone about buying the latter's 45 per cent stake in their Verizon Wireless joint venture for about $40 billion (€32.8 billion).
Verizon is under rising pressure to take full control of the wireless venture to compete with larger rival AT&T, sparking investors' fears that it may end up overpaying for the stake.
Verizon has openly expressed its desire to buy out Vodafone's 45 per cent share and repeated this ambition after AT&T announced a roughly $65 billion (€53.4 billion) proposal to buy BellSouth and take over their Cingular Wireless joint venture.
Vodafone is already in talks to sell a controlling stake in its struggling Japanese unit to Softbank.However, US private equity firms Cerberus Capital Management and Providence Equity Partners were yesterday reported to be planning a $15 billion (€12.3 billion) rival bid, sources familiar with the deal said.
The all-cash private equity offer for Japan's third-largest mobile operator is expected to be submitted to Vodafone's board imminently, one of the sources said.
