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Best Buy to close UK operations, 1,100 jobs in jeopardy

Best Buy Europe, the joint venture between Best Buy Inc. and Carphone Warehouse, has been shuttered after just 18 months in business. In that short amount of time, it lost £80 million ($127 million), largely due to consumer belt-tightening and increased competition from cheaper online retailers. Up to 1,100 jobs will be lost at the eleven UK stores currently open in Thurrock, Bristol and Wolverhampton, among other locations, bringing to an end the company's ambitious plan to open 200 stores across Europe. At the same time, the US giant declared it would buy out its European partner's stake in the Best Buy Mobile chain as it continues to pull out of unprofitable foreign operations.

Update: We've got some more on what this deal means. Buying out Carphone Warehouse is gonna cost $1.3 billion plus $8 million annually for five years. The two aren't splitting up for good, since they're also starting another joint venture called Global Connect (good luck with that one, fellas). Separately, the company announced it was grabbing mindShift technology, a cloud service provider for small and medium-sized enterprises for a cool $167 million.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]