"It makes sense in streamlining assets, because they are largely in Texas and the Middle East," said Leo Mariani, a senior analyst at RBC Capital Markets.
The Tyumen Oil Company, Russia's fourth-largest oil producer, is pushing ahead with a plan to streamline its assets, one of the industry's last and quietest corporate revampings.
If Verizon does indeed take Verizon Wireless of Vodafone's hands, it would fit into Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao's strategy for the company, which has been to streamline its assets after years of rapid expansion.
HSBC has been selling assets to streamline its business.
With the sovereign debt crisis dragging on and the economy slumping, the British bank has been moving to shed assets and streamline its global operations in a bid to increase profitability.
"Kodak is making good progress toward emergence from Chapter 11, taking significant actions to reorganize our core ongoing businesses, reduce costs, sell assets and streamline our organizational structure," Antonio M. Perez, the company's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
The company said it decided to sell its stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields to streamline its business and sell off assets in which it was not the main operator.
HSBC, based in London, has been shedding assets to cut costs and streamline its business, and at the same time bolstering its balance sheet in the face of tighter global capital requirements for banks.
In May, he outlined plans to shed $500 billion in unwanted "legacy" assets and take other actions to cut costs and streamline operations as profits faced pressure from rising credit costs, ongoing asset value write-downs and a global business slowdown.
"They can take an undervalued asset, sell off the worthless parts, streamline the management, unlock the cash flow and turn it into a real earner".
Finmeccanica said it would sell €1 billion, or $1.4 billion, in assets and cut jobs, overhaul production and streamline supply lines to reduce costs.
