News
U.S. telco to take full ownership of 100 jointly-operated Sprint Connect stores.
Sprint late last week agreed to buy Dixons Carphone’s 50% share of their U.S. retail joint venture.
Sprint and Dixons Carphone’s Connected World Services (CWS) division agreed in July 2015 to open and manage a number of Sprint Connect-branded stores, with CWS providing certain consultancy services. In March 2016, Sprint also agreed to deploy CWS’s Honeybee customer relationship management (CRM) platform at its outlets.
"This partnership achieved its objective of accelerating Sprint’s retail transformation," said Kevin Crull, president of omnichannel sales at Sprint.
Sprint will assume full control of more than 100 stores operated by the joint venture. It will continue to use Honeybee at new and existing shops.
"With the significant shift in the U.S. mobile market, now is the right time to transfer these stores to Sprint," said Andrew Harrison, deputy group CEO of Dixons Carphone. CWS will focus instead on Honeybee.
"It has been a privilege to work so closely with [Sprint CEO] Marcelo [Claure] and his excellent team as they turn around this amazing business," he said.
Financial details were not disclosed. Sprint said staff levels at the joint venture’s stores will not be affected.
"We are rapidly expanding our retail footprint to serve the high demand for the Sprint value proposition. There will be no disruption in Sprint Connect store operations and they will remain staffed by the retail teams currently working to serve our customers in these locations," Crull said.
