This week Vodafone announced huge losses, redundancies, and strategic changes. The financial losses are second only in UK corporate history to Vodafone's 2002 losses.

Despite Vodafone's good performance last year, this year's losses mean that jobs are being cut: around 400 in the UK and around 6000 worldwide.

So why these record-breaking losses at these times?

2006's losses

Vodafone, like many companies, has several 'birth charts'. Its main chart dates to 1985. This is it:

In this chart Pluto (resources, wealth) is at 4 degrees 22 minutes of Scorpio in the 2nd house (finances, assets). In April 2006 Saturn (downturns, setbacks, tightening budgets, cutting back) stationed, turning direct, at 4 degrees 22 minutes of Leo, at right angles to Vodafone's Pluto. As well as that, transiting Pluto has been and still is in sextile to Vodafone's Venus (finances, assets), reflecting the crisis and the need to do some urgent and drastic pruning.

Looking at two of the other birthcharts for Vodafone we find that in both of them Venus was at 21 degrees Leo. During May 2006 Neptune has been stationary directly opposite that point.

2002's losses

The losses announced at the end of May 2002 coincided with transiting Uranus stationing on the company's Venus, reinforced by transiting Pluto stationing and then retrograding across the company's Mercury (symbolising communication industry), transiting Saturn shifting between an opposition to Vodafone's Uranus in 2001 and a quincunx to the company's Pluto in 2002, and transiting Neptune stationing in square to Vodafone's Pluto in 2001.