Just two weeks since Vodafone and Verizon Communications renewed their vows, it is still odds-on that their partnership will end in acrimonious divorce. The US company prefers to use cash from Verizon Wireless to reduce the mobile operator's debt rather than pay an early dividend on Vodafone's 45 per cent stake in the joint venture. When both money and custody of the offspring are in dispute, it cannot end well.