Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse adjust mobile strategies

Best Buy is buying Carphone Warehouse out of its 50% stake in their joint Best Buy Mobile venture for approximately $1.34 billion.

The move means that full profits of its stake in the mobile market, driven heartily by devices such as the Apple iPhone, will go entirely to Best Buy, which is facing competition from discount sources such as Amazon and Walmart.

The purchase is one of three ways that Best Buy announced today it is "reshaping how it manages connections" in North America, Europe and beyond.

Its Best Buy Europe division additionally plans to close 11 big box stores in the United Kingdom, in favor of focusing on the smaller "Wireless World" store format it has with Carphone Warehouse, offering a greater selection of devices and a more service-based experience than in the latter. In the highly competitive space, service and add-ons will be key components of its strategy for staying ahead of its more hardware-focused competition.

Finally, with Carphone Warehouse, it's also launching a venture called Global Connect, to expand its device inventories, as well as its "intellectual capital and connections expertise," it said in a statement, to markets beyond North America and Europe.

"Over the past four years we have built unsurpassed expertise and depth of offerings in mobile. No other retailer has our carrier and vendor relationships across all product categories, our well-established multi-channel presence and the Geek Squad ensuring that you walk out with your technology working," CEO Brian Dunn said in a statement.

"With these capabilities firmly established, and consumers living increasingly mobile, connected lives, there is a significant opportunity to grow connection sales and capture the strong profit they offer."

In September, regional carrier Cricket announced it was going nationwide, thanks in part to its relationship with Best Buy, which along with its Best Buy Mobile locations gave the carrier more than 1,300 outlets for its devices (CP: Leap takes Cricket national, with help from Best Buy and Sprint). Virgin Mobile has also leaned on Best Buy's heft in its efforts to compete against low-cost offers from T-Mobile (CP: Virgin Mobile's payLo wants to make savers feel savvy).

In a separate announcement today, again underlining its necessary service emphasis, Best Buy shared that it's purchasing mindSHIFT, a managed services provider for small and midsize businesses, for $167 million.

"There's no question that acquiring the skills, capabilities and clients of mindSHIFT has the potential to help expand Best Buy's global services capabilities in the vast small and mid-sized business market," George Sherman, senior vice president of Best Buy Services, said in the statement. "As important, the mindSHIFT team will bring added experience, talent and resources to the remote support capability we have been building within our multi-channel tech service unit Geek Squad."

Just as the 11 U.K. Best Buy Europe stores that are being closed have been hurting for business, all isn't sunny for the brand in the U.S., where stores open at least 14 months, reports Bloomberg, have suffered declines for five consecutive quarters. On Sept. 13, Best Buy announced second-quarter earnings of $177 million, compared with earnings of $254 million a year ago. Dunn noted that he was, of course, looking forward to the holiday shopping season.