Carphone Warehouse

Early years

The company was co-founded in 1989 by Sir Charles Dunstone and Julian Brownlie, who put £6,000 into the company from their savings.[3][4] Guy Johnson of NEC UK became the second partner at the company, later taking up the role of Logistics and Distribution director.[5][6] In 1990, Dunstone brought in his school friend David Ross, a chartered accountant,[4][7] who became Chief Operating Officer in the same year.[8]

1999 to 2009

In January 1999, the company bought Tandy's operations in the United Kingdom for £9 million.[9][10] In July 2000, Carphone Warehouse issued an IPO.[11] In July 2001, Johnson sold the majority of his stake and retired.[5] Carphone Warehouse bought Opal Telecom in November 2002.[12]

In 2003, Ross started to step down from the COO role.[11] In July 2005, he became deputy chairman.[13] On 10 October 2006, the Carphone Warehouse announced that it would purchase the Internet access business of AOL in the United Kingdom for £370m.[14][15] Also in that month, it was announced that Geek Squad would be launching in the United Kingdom, in a 50/50 joint venture between Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy.[16]

In May 2008, Best Buy agreed to buy a 50% share in Carphone Warehouse's retail business for £1.1 billion, to launch the Best Buy Europe joint venture, named CPW Europe.[17][18] Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse also opened joint venture stores in the United States.[19]

Ross, by now a non-executive director, resigned from the board in December 2008.[20]

2010 to 2021

In 2010, the broadband and home phone business was spun off as TalkTalk.[21]

In May 2014, Carphone Warehouse Group and Dixons Retail announced their merger to create Dixons Carphone. The merger completed on 7 August 2014.[22] The Dixons Group staff moved into 1 Portal Way, the original home of Carphone Warehouse in West London, in May 2015.[23]

In May 2015, Carphone Warehouse launched iD Mobile, a mobile virtual network operator using Three's network.[24]

In April 2020, products and services from the O2 network ceased to be available from Carphone Warehouse after the companies were unable to reach a contractual agreement.[25]

Closure of stand-alone UK stores

In March 2020, the company announced that they would be closing all 531 stand-alone UK stores the following month, with sales operations continuing within co-located "shops within shops" at Currys PC World stores and through the website.[26] It was said that this measure was a result of the changing mobile market.[26]

Closure in Ireland

On 21 April 2021, the company announced that the entire business in Ireland, including all 69 standalone stores in Ireland, 12 outlets within other stores, and the carphonewarehouse.ie website would close with immediate effect, with the loss of 486 jobs.[27] The company stated the closures were in line with the decision to close all UK stores the previous year, with the changes in the mobile market and customer shopping behaviour being accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Owner Dixons Carphone noted that it would continue to sell phones and accessories in Ireland through Currys PC World stores and the Currys website.[28]

Demergers and disposals

On 8 May 2009, Carphone Warehouse agreed to pay £236m in cash for the United Kingdom assets of Tiscali, an Italian telecoms group.[29] Tiscali UK later became part of TalkTalk.[30]

In March 2010, TalkTalk and Carphone Warehouse split and Dido Harding became CEO of TalkTalk, and Roger Taylor CEO of New Carphone Warehouse.[31] Dunstone remained Chairman of both companies.[31] On 30 April 2013, Carphone Warehouse agreed to purchase Best Buy's 50% stake in Best Buy Europe for £500 million.[32]

Carphone Warehouse owned 46% of Virgin Mobile France in a joint venture with Virgin Group. In June 2014, Carphone and Virgin agreed to sell Virgin Mobile France to Numericable for €325 million.[33] French competition regulators, ARCEP, approved the deal in November 2014.[34][35]

The X Factor

On 19 June 2007, Carphone Warehouse became the official sponsor of the fourth series of The X Factor. The sponsorship deal was to last for three years. Carphone Warehouse also became the sponsor of its spin off show, The Xtra Factor. After Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk split, TalkTalk took over the sole sponsorship of The X Factor.[42]

Big Brother

The company were the sponsors for the United Kingdom's version of Big Brother from 2004 to 2007. In 2006, they also sponsored Celebrity Big Brother and related Celebrity Big Brother shows on Channel 4.

On 17 January 2007, in response to alleged racism in Celebrity Big Brother, Charles Dunstone said: "We are talking to Channel 4. The sponsorship is constantly under review. Clearly we are against racism. Most people understand that the person who has their name associated with the programme does not necessarily condone the content."[43][44]

On 18 January 2007, Carphone Warehouse announced that it had suspended its sponsorship of the show as Channel 4 had not taken sufficient action in response to the alleged racism in the show.[45] On 8 March 2007, the company permanently dropped its sponsorship of the show.[46]

Appy Awards

In April 2011, Carphone Warehouse sponsored the Appy Awards, calling them "the United Kingdom’s first major app awards ceremony designed to recognise innovation and development in app technology".[47]

Carphone Warehouse staff nominated around 1,000 apps from which a panel of judges produced a shortlist of 50,[48][49] announced by Hammond in February 2011.[50] In an online process, about 30,000 votes were cast by the public to choose the winners. Most of the shortlisted apps are free to download but others require a one-off or an ongoing payment.[51] Finland-based Rovio Mobile's 2009 game Angry Birds, which recently passed the 100-million download mark,[52] won the award for Best App of the Year along with a win in the Best Game App category and a nomination in the Best Time Waster App category.[53] Lima Sky's Doodle Jump, which topped 10 million downloads in March 2011, was nominated in both the Best Game App and Best Time Waster App categories but failed to win either.[54]