Carphone Names TalkTalk Boss :: Talk Talk boss slams broadband tax

LONDON -- Carphone Warehouse PLC has recruited retailer J Sainsbury PLC's convenience-store boss, Dido Harding, to run its mobile-phone division TalkTalk Group following its split off, set for early next year.

TalkTalk is being separated from Carphone Warehouse's other business, Best Buy Europe, a joint venture with U.S. retailer Best Buy Co.

Ms. Harding joined Sainsbury in early 2008. Prior to joining Sainsbury, she worked at Tesco PLC where she held a variety of senior roles both in their U.K. and international businesses.

Ms. Harding will be responsible for the overall TalkTalk business, a newly created position. TalkTalk Managing Director Wendy Becker left a few months ago to take up a marketing position with Vodafone Group PLC in Italy. Ms. Becker was responsible for running the residential business of TalkTalk.

Carphone Warehouse's founder and current CEO Charles Dunstone will be chairman of both TalkTalk and Best Buy Europe following the split-up.

Carphone Warehouse last month said it is on track to split TalkTalk and Best Buy Europe by the end of March 2010 as its reported better-than-expected fiscal first-half earnings and revenue, underpinned by its mobile phone retail and broadband operations. It also raised its full year earnings per share guidance.

The company has reshaped its business over the past two years, moving its mobile-phone-retail offering into a joint venture with U.S. electronics giant Best Buy Co. and building TalkTalk into the largest residential broadband provider in the U.K. following its recent acquisition of Tiscali U.K.

Separately, TalkTalk and U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 Wednesday joined Project Canvas, a service that will allow viewers to watch free-to-air broadcasts and Internet content on television. In a widely anticipated move, they join existing partners the British Broadcasting Corp., ITV PLC, BT Group PLC and RTL Group SA's Five, which joined the venture in July.

Project Canvas is still awaiting approval from BBC controlling body, the BBC Trust, before it can launch, and has faced criticism from pay television groups, particularly British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC. News Corp., which owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has a roughly 39% stake in BSkyB.