US electronic retailer Best Buy has acquired a 3 per cent stake in the European mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse.
Best Buy’s announcement comes with news that Carphone Warehouse will be the exclusive independent retailer of Apple’s iPhone in the UK - which will be available through O2 from early November.
Best Buy acquired nearly 3 percent of CPW’s shares for $183m on the open market, during the company’s second fiscal quarter ended at the beginning of September. And earlier this year, Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy agreed a partnership deal to roll out a mobile phone retail service - Best Buy Mobile - across 200 US stores.
They also worked together to launch a home help service for struggling PC users in London earlier this year, dubbed the Geek Squad.
Robert Willett, Best Buy CEO said, “This investment reaffirms our commitment to our strategic relationship with The Carphone Warehouse”.
Strategic relationships? Commitment?…
Best Buy and The Carphone Warehouse both are focused on creating superior customer experiences. CPW shares our passion and culture around customer excellence. Our relationship provides us with the opportunity to align with a best-in-class company that has complementary capabilities and expertise.
Sounds like their could be room for a merger… Collins Stewart analyst Mark James thinks so anyway, saying there was “potential for a full bid” for CPW in a note to clients Tuesday: “Best Buy has shown an interest in breaking into the U.K.”
