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Best Buy enters Europe with Carphone retail deal
Best Buy, the world's biggest electronics retailer, is set to take on Europe. They are paying $2.1 billion for half of Britain's Carphone Warehouse chain to break into the European consumer market.
The deal creates a joint venture business that will compete with DSG International, formerly called Dixons, and Kesa which owns the French group Darty.
Carphone and Best Buy estimate the size of the European market for consumer electronics to be around 89 billion pounds ($174 billion).
The pair said the 50-50 owned company would target a growing appetite for consumer electronics, but analysts said the pair are entering a tough market where the incumbents are struggling.
Europe's biggest independent mobile phone retailer Carphone's existing 2,400 stores will continue to operate under the Carphone Warehouse and Phone House brands in its nine European markets, and from 2009 the new company will roll out larger stores under the Best Buy name.
Analysts said Best Buy would bring its understanding of the consumer electronics market to Europe, a region it has long wanted to enter, but cautioned that it could take some time to roll out the stores and secure a strong presence.
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Comments (1)
at 14:36 on May 9th, 2008
amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff. Yes this deal makes sense. Carphone have the best high street outlets in the UK and combining with Best Buy will put the latter ahead of the present competition. PC World who have been having a difficult time of late will be worried about this venture. Computer and related items have seen a fall in prices here of some 6% this year.