UK retailer Dixons Carphone announced that it's ending its joint venture in the US with mobile operator Sprint.
The company’s Connected World Services (CWS) division agreed in 2015 to open and manage a number of Sprint-branded stores in the US. In 2016 they entered into a further agreement to deploy Honeybee, CWS' software platform, into the Sprint retail estate.
In light of the changing US mobile market landscape and Sprint’s review of its own distribution strategy, the companies have reached mutual agreement that CWS will focus on the deployment of the Honeybee platform across the entire Sprint estate and that Sprint will acquire the CWS 50 percent share of the distribution joint venture. No financial details were disclosed.
Sprint announced separately that it has taken full control of the 100 stores it previously owned together with Dixons Carphone. Sprint confirmed it will continue to use Dixon Carphone’s retail platform.
Sprint president of Omnichannel Sales Kevin Crull said there will be no disruption to Sprint Connect store operations and that they will remain staffed by their current retail teams.
Sprint and Dixons Carphone formed their 50/50 joint venture in February of last year, with the aim of operating up to 500 new Sprint-branded stores across the US.
