AO squares up to Dixons Carphone with latest acquisition
Last week AO, the online electrical retailer, made a surprise announcement, firstly to update the market on slowing growth and secondly to confirm it was buying Mobile Phones Direct. I’d call that shrewd. Bundle bad news with a definite plan to address the woes head on. MPD generated £121.7m and EBITDA of £5.5m at the end of March 2018. It’s a solid business that certainly has the right network agreements in place. Contrast that with Dixons Carphone, which has struggled lately, posting a 2% revenue increase in electricals versus the 9.9% AO shared last week. I realise it’s not exactly comparing apples with apples to compare an omnichannel business with an online only one, but I’ve no doubt there’s some devil in the detail of those numbers that will be making the team at Dixons Carphone consider what their next move will be in this retail game of chess. (more…)
