Carphone: Old bones

Carphone Warehouse can’t hide behind a demerger. The UK telecom retailer clearly hoped that saying it might spin off its TalkTalk broadband business would assuage investors’ concern about the grim outlook for its electronic retail joint venture with US partner Best Buy. But throwing investors this old bone hasn’t worked. Carphone shares plunged 15% in morning trading in London. Timing is a big problem. Investors have been expecting a demerger ever since Carphone sold half its retail business to...