London — British mobile operator Vodafone risks being left on the sidelines as rivals converge to break free from just selling ever-cheaper data bundles, and become internet companies offering combined services from phones to TV to broadband. Vodafone expanded at breakneck speed through audacious takeovers and now has nearly 500-million mobile customers and operations in about 30 countries, yet investors worry it is not adapting quickly enough to the fast-changing landscape. Long-cherished for its dividend yield, Vodafone shares are trading at a discount by most measures for the first time in more than three years and worries about cashflow in a cut-throat mobile market are reviving calls for a merger to transform it into a European communications powerhouse once again. "It’s fair to say Vodafone were too slow to appreciate the direction that the market was going in terms of the need to be able to offer genuinely converged products, and to have favourable access to fixed-line networ...
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