The Carphone Warehouse (AOL, TalkTalk) has sold half of its retailing business share to Best Buy USA for £1.1bn, potentially freeing up enough cash to help it acquire rival ISP Tiscali UK and reduce some of its debt. Best Buy is the world’s largest consumer electronics retailer, playing host to 150,000 staff, annual sales of over £20bn and a 20% US market share.

The two have worked closely together in the past, with a November 2006 partnership helping Best Buy to launch the Best Buy Mobile brand state side. The venture also brought a home computer service business to the UK under the Geek Squad brand in 2007.

Best Buy will now join forces with The Carphone Warehouse to create a European consumer electronics business. It's important to recognise that Best Buy has not brought any share of Carphone's ISP business, just the retail/distribution side.