Disqus
Best Buy has announced a joint venture with Carphone Warehouse (CW), by investing 1.1bn GBP! The 50/50 JV will include the CW’s 2400 stores in 9 European countries, and the assets will include the CW share of an existing venture with Best Buy (which we reported on here).
Starting next year, Best Buy will open stores with it’s name, beginning with the UK, and expanding across Europe. Apparently current CW stores will stay named as such, whereas new stores will get the Best Buy brand. The Mobile handset departments in US Best Buy stores will also be due for expansion.
CW plans to use the proceeds from the investment for reducing debt, but also, and more interestingly, to expand it’s broadband offering – when I say expand, I really mean grow the customer base. And there is a good way to do that – buy Tiscali, which would catapult it in to the top three broadband providers with ease. The only spanner in the works there could be the potential intervention of, say, Vodafone UK – who apparently are also eyeing up Tiscali…
Interesting times, with lots of money changing hands!
[Via: Bloomberg]
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
