The denial follows reports yesterday (see - Biggest merger ever: Verizon and AT&T set sights on Vodafone) that AT&T and Verizon were preparing to jointly bid for Vodafone.Verizon says it IS interested in discussing the future of Vodafone's 45 per cent holding in Verizon Wireless.

Verizon says it "currently" doesn't have any designs on Vodafone - a qualification which illustrates why companies often refuse to comment on press speculation.

That's because a new speculation might be that it either did (say up to yesterday) have such a plan, but now doesn't. Or that it intends to have such a plan in the near future (but hasn't yet decided).

The process of headline/denial, headline/denial can end up outing the very thing the company wants kept under wraps. We, of course, would never engage in such an exercise.