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]