Boring Name
Should have gone for Curry House instead.
Dixons and Carphone Warehouse confirm £3.7bn merger
Dixons Retail and mobile phone shop Carphone Warehouse have confirmed their £3.7bn merger after months of talks, creating one of the biggest retailers in Blighty. Dixons, which already owns Currys and PC World, will combine with the mobe-purveyor to form Dixons Carphone in a 50:50 merger, rather than an acquisition of one side …
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Thursday 15th May 2014 09:37 GMT Anonymous Coward
job losses
So looks like about 1000 jobs in 2 years, offset by 500 new recruits...
Does that sound like closing stores in towns when there is a Curried Dick retail park outlet already.... and then adding back a couple of mobile phone people to work out of a corner of the shop?
Does to me!
The biggest problem this sort of retail has is property/leases - through acquisitions they often have multiple shop premises in the same town - slightly bizarre and probably not much use to them.
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Thursday 15th May 2014 10:22 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: job losses
"it'll be a fantastic platform for growth and job creation."
You're right. Earlier this week Dixons have announced 150 job losses, so it's a bit rich really the Dixons chairman saying this.
But you know, it's popular to come out with this stuff at the moment. David Cameron for example last week said the private sector has created 600,000 new jobs since the Con-Dem Government came to power. But what he doesn't tell you is that the public sector have sacked/laid off 600,000 workers.
This day and age you can say what you like, without backing anything of it up, as long as you can give it a good spin and hope no one checks the figures.
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Thursday 15th May 2014 11:02 GMT Phil W
Re: job losses
I realise it's not much comfort to those that are facing redundancy but 150 staff within the entirety of DSG is so minimal a percentage as to almost insignificant. When dealing with companies of this size merging like this, job losses that stay under 4 figures is something of a miracle.
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Thursday 15th May 2014 10:07 GMT rhydian
This will be the first merger ever...
...Covered by an extended 5 year guarantee!
But seriously, the new borged being will need to sort out the frankly dismal level of product knowledge that the average Currys/PCWorld sales droid has. Carphone warehouse might have a few issues, but I've always found their customer care to be at least "reasonable".
Currys on the other hand couldn't show me a live broadcast on a TV they had for sale as the shop hadn't actually got a TV licence. Then, when I asked about integrated freesat TVs, the sales droid BSOD'd and had to fetch the supoervisor. When I told the supervisor I didn't want to look at an LG because I'd experienced faulty ones in the past, he said my doubts were unfounded.
That was until I pointed out the LG on display which was turning the screen off once a second...
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Thursday 15th May 2014 10:33 GMT Piro
Absolute and total bollocks
"Lots to do, but assuming this merger is completed, it'll be a fantastic platform for growth and job creation."
How, exactly? The merger is to save money! How will this be done? Shops that are near to each other, scrap one. That's the retail stuff cut down.
Support staff? Don't need two sets, so they can massively cut down on those numbers.
It's to save money and increase profitability. Creating jobs would be directly opposing to this. Some people talk so much bollocks.
That said, I was amused by the suggestions of phallic names.
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Thursday 15th May 2014 11:02 GMT SuperTim
Carphone Whorehouse...
is what many of their own employees* call themselves. It actually takes presence of mind and self control to not say it to managers during meetings, it's that natural for them.
*I live with a former opal telecom person, who are owned by carphone ware/whorehouse**
**delete as applicable.
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Thursday 15th May 2014 10:45 GMT string
to misquote McNealy...
three garbage trucks colliding
I do look forward to the demise of these soulless out of town retail parks.
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Thursday 15th May 2014 13:52 GMT Robert E A Harvey
Re: tthe Poole retail jungle
I bought something from that branch of PC whirled once. It just goes to show how crushingly boring Poole/Bournemouth are on a wet January monday. There is a maplin nearby, for those who want a serious dose of people being patronising, rude, and wrong in one sentence.
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Thursday 15th May 2014 16:01 GMT rhydian
Re: tthe Poole retail jungle
This reminds me of Aberystwyth back in the late 1990s and Early 2000s. Thanks to the vagaries of takeovers, Dixons were directly opposite Currys on the High Street. The only difference was that Currys had fridges and washing machines on display, while Dixons had cameras. In the end they moved the Currys to an out of town retail park, and Dixons were gone not long after.
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Thursday 15th May 2014 11:51 GMT Mage
It was Curry's Cycles Originally.
People brought their Lead Acid Accumulators to get charged, so they thought "Why not sell entire Radio?" Unlike the Green'grocer's' s'ignage's' they dropped the apostrophe.
All they need now is to acquire Halfords :D
Carphone Warehouse has been a stupid name for maybe nearly 20 years. Why bother changing now!
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Thursday 15th May 2014 13:53 GMT Richard Taylor 2
JL
"John Lewis got my business instead..."
In my experience (white goods as well as the occasional bit of tech), John Lewis are good, the staff appear to know something about what they are selling - AND - admit it when they don't or have to go and ask. Prices reasonable, warranties good, generally a decent company with whom I am happy to do business.
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Thursday 15th May 2014 16:31 GMT PaulM 1
What about phones4u?
Presumably the phones4u franchises will now be closed in all the Currys/PC World stores.
@AceRimmer. I actually think that Carphone Warehouse and phones4u are briliant. They are the only stores that sell unlocked phones and they give you a £20 discount on every phone if you upgrade from an existing PAYG SIM. I have six 99p candy bar phones with Virgin PAYG SIMs in them that I top up once every 6 months so that I can always take advantage of Carphone Warehouse and phones4u upgrade offers. I bought two Huawei Y300s for only £39 each that way.
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Thursday 15th May 2014 18:09 GMT Anonymous Coward
To be fair
I give not two shits about people at shop level in Dixons or Carphone Warehouse losing their job. Take it as a lesson learned not to have a shit job where no-one really actually needs your services.
Last time I went into a Dixons was to ask about a digital camera they had in stock. Played with it, took a few snaps, then went home and bought it online from somewhere.
Great. :)
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Thursday 15th May 2014 19:27 GMT Paul Hunter
Last time I tried to buy a SIM-free phone in CW, the sales guy refused to sell me one, because he said he doesn't get any commission on a phone sold without a contract, and as they didn't have many in stock, he'd rather keep them for customers who were going to make him some money. I asked to speak to the manager and he agreed with the sales guy. I haven't been back.
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Friday 16th May 2014 08:51 GMT Ascylto
Closures
The CEO (or whatever fat cat name he has) did NOT say there will be no closures of stores. This was widely reported even by the BBC, He ACTUALLY said that there would be no closure of BIG stores. This leaves a lot of wiggle-room. What's a BIG store anyway? He, BTW, was the new head honcho of Dickwarehouse.
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Friday 16th May 2014 12:50 GMT Ascylto
Fatty Catty
As CEO of Dicko's he earned a mere £1.3 million. How does he pay his bills? Perhaps he's got a warranty.
I remember years ago a TV prog about the head-honcho at John Lewis. I recall he said something like he led a very nice lifestyle on £500,000.
Why do people buy from Dicko's or Pissy World et al when the CEOs don't know when enough's enough? (PS. I know the answer.}
This topic is closed for new posts.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
