Phones 4U have bought online retailer Dial-a-Phone for the knockdown price of £9m, a snip on the £60m valuation a couple of years ago.
Phones 4U have taken advantage of the situation at the ailing Dial-a-Phone in order to increase their share in websales, having been watching the business for some time.
Carphone Warehouse were also said to be looking at purchasing the internet dealer, but were repeatedly put off by unrealistic valuations. Carphone eventually moved to buying smaller web-retailers e2Save and OneStopPhoneShop.
Dial-a-Phone have been suffering the past couple of years following the pull out of T-Mobile, 3, and Vodafone, who all had issues with the quality of customers. This lead to a sharp decrease in contract volumes, from 40,000 to 10,000.
Nick Fisher, Dial-a-Phone sales boss will take over the day to day operations as joint owners Richard Frank and Jonathan Beck have left the business. Fisher will now report to Brendan Sweeney, 4U's distribution head.
Phones 4U will continue to run the site as a separate operation under the Dial-a-Phone brand.
“Dial-a- Phone’s strong brand and high level of expertise in the direct market are a perfect complement to Phones 4u’s brand and strength on the High Street." Said 4u Group CEO Tim Whiting.
"Combining the Dial-a-Phone business with the Phones 4u direct operation will significantly increase our share of the direct mobile phone market. We are looking forward to welcoming Dial-a-Phone to the 4u Group and believe it will play a significant part in the continued expansion of our mobile phone distribution business.”
Carphone Warehouse were also said to be looking at purchasing the internet dealer, but were repeatedly put off by unrealistic valuations. Carphone eventually moved to buying smaller web-retailers e2Save and OneStopPhoneShop.
Dial-a-Phone have been suffering the past couple of years following the pull out of T-Mobile, 3, and Vodafone, who all had issues with the quality of customers. This lead to a sharp decrease in contract volumes, from 40,000 to 10,000.
Nick Fisher, Dial-a-Phone sales boss will take over the day to day operations as joint owners Richard Frank and Jonathan Beck have left the business. Fisher will now report to Brendan Sweeney, 4U's distribution head.
Phones 4U will continue to run the site as a separate operation under the Dial-a-Phone brand.
“Dial-a- Phone’s strong brand and high level of expertise in the direct market are a perfect complement to Phones 4u’s brand and strength on the High Street." Said 4u Group CEO Tim Whiting.
"Combining the Dial-a-Phone business with the Phones 4u direct operation will significantly increase our share of the direct mobile phone market. We are looking forward to welcoming Dial-a-Phone to the 4u Group and believe it will play a significant part in the continued expansion of our mobile phone distribution business.”