Carphone Warehouse has completed its planned acquisition of Best Buy’s 50% share of the CPW Europe business, bringing an end to the joint retail venture.

From next month’s AGM, Andrew Harrison is stepping up to become CEO of the Carphone Warehouse Group. Roger Taylor, current Group CEO, will become deputy chairman.

Carphone Warehouse is planning to take over the European business that bears its name, which is actually a 50/50 joint venture set up with US-based retailer Best Buy in June 2008. It’s agreed to pay £471 million for the 50% of CPW Europe it doesn’t already own.

This 50% share in Carphone Warehouse was originally sold for around £1.1 billion as part of Best Buy’s European expansion.

American technology retailer Best Buy Co. Inc. has confirmed that it’s received a letter from Richard Schulze, the company’s founder and former chairman, outlining an offer to acquire all the Best Buy shares he doesn’t already own. Mr Schulze resigned as chairman in June this year.

His offer of $24 to $26 per share is significantly above the current trading price for the company’s shares, which are trading at around $20.

Carphone Warehouse Group plc has published a trading update for the fourth quarter of its financial year.

Revenue at CPW Europe - the company’s 50% joint venture with Best Buy - were down 5.5%, while total connections were down 19%. Postpay connections were up in the UK, although the company estimates that the overall prepay market in Q4 was down 30-40% in the UK.

The UK-based Mobile Money Network, which is behind the Simply Tap mobile shopping app, says Visa Europe is planning to take a 15% stake in its business. Visa Europe will join the MNN’s three founders: Monitise, Best Buy Europe and Charles Dunstone.

The two businesses aim to implement a number of m-commerce initiatives in the UK in 2012.

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

Mark Bridge writes:

James Rosewell shows me a colourful roll of paper that's the width of an iPhone but well over three metres long. When I look closer, I can see it's a printed copy of the Wall Street Journal's mobile website. That's a lot of scrolling to do... and a pretty unfriendly user experience for anyone reading the news online. Why does it work so badly?

James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return from their summer break with a podcast full of smartphones and smart watches.

As well as products from Samsung, Sony, Microsoft, Motorola, HTC and Kazam, there's talk of Opera's new browser deal, a potential change on the UK high street... and a mobile app that connects to a Bluetooth toothbrush for improved toothpaste coverage.

Mark Bridge takes an in-depth look at the CAT B100 rugged phone from Bullitt Mobile.

The CAT B100 is designed to withstand rather more than everyday bumps and knocks - which is why Mark drops his mobile phone on the pavement, submerges it in his washing-up bowl and shuts it in the freezer.

We start this week's podcast with news that thousands of Microsoft's ex-Nokia employees are losing their jobs.

Other topics for discussion include the new Apple and IBM partnership, Yahoo's acquisition of Flurry, regulating mobile games, improving rural mobile coverage, BT's new phone service and some management movements.

In this podcast Mark Bridge talks to Florent Stroppa from mobile value-added service specialist OnMobile about the state of the mobile industry in 2014.

They discuss the dominance of Apple and Samsung, network consolidation, the new Amazon Fire smartphone, smart wearables and much more.

This week's mobile industry podcast begins with a quick look at the UK government's emergency legislation affecting fixed-line, mobile phone and broadband traffic.

We then talk about Microsoft's plans, a new virtual network from the Post Office, Samsung's renamed app store, budget 4G smartphones, a wearable phone for children and some misleading advertising.