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...
