In case you hadn’t heard, there is a potential merger between Dixons and Carphone Warehouse in the offing but, there could deb problems with it.
The two retailers confirmed on last week that they are in early talks about creating a company that would be worth almost £4bn and have more than 1,200 shops in the UK. That would quite likely make it one of the largest retailers in the UK and the largest electrical retailer by some margin.
However, analysts have warned that any merger is likely to be referred to the Competition Commission “in view of the convergence of the technologies and the service dominance of the two businesses even though there is limited overlap in the categories”.
If the two do agree a merger then it could be the first large merger to be examined by the new Competition & Markets Authority, which is replacing the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission in April.
Quite what this deal will mean for the large appliance side of the business is very hard to guess given that, so far, there is only talk of a merger but it does appear to make sense for both businesses.