Vodafone withdraws its business from the Carphone Warehouse

12 October 2006 14:16 GMT / By Amber Maitland

After the Carphone Warehouse’s proud day yesterday announcing the acquisition of AOL UK comes a bit of a slump as Vodafone has announced today that it’s dropping the group from selling its mobile phone contracts.

Instead, Vodafone has partnered with Phones 4u in an exclusive deal that also sees the company dropping The Link, now owned by O2, and Dial-a-phone, although it will still sell through small independent shops.

Phones 4u, according to a statement by Vodafone, “has an excellent reach in the 15-34 year old market”, which is also Vodafone’s target audience.

A Vodafone spokesman told The Times that the decision will translate to reduced commission charges because Phones 4u could expect great sales volumes.

The Carphone Warehouse will still sell Vodafone pay-as-you-go mobile phones.

Vodafone rival and The Link owner O2 plans to stick with the Carphone Warehouse for now. A spokesperson for the mobile service provider said, “We have a really good relationship with the Carphone Warehouse and we’re going to continue working with them closely”.

Full tags

Biz, Mergers, Vodafone, Carphone Warehouse, MySpace, Yahoo