London - U.S. consumer electronics and media retail chain Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) announced on Thursday that it paid $2.1 billion to acquire 50% of the Carphone Warehouse, a mobile phone retailer that counts over 2,400 stores in nine European countries.

London - Apple's (NASD: AAPL) U.K. iPhone launch partners, O2 and Carphone Warehouse, have slashed the price of the device there by 100 pounds ($197) in anticipation of the launch of a new model of the device, Reuters reports. The 8GB version will now sell for 169 pounds, while the 16GB model will stay at 329 pounds; a similar price cut was enacted by T-Mobile in Germany earlier this month. Apple told Reuters the O2 promotional pricing would not extend to iPhone sales at its own stores.

London - Apple's (NASD: AAPL) 8GB iPhone went on sale in the U.K. and Germany on Friday, sporting price tags of about $563 (GBP) at O2 and Carphone Warehouse in the U.K. and $583 (euros) at T-Mobile stores in Germany.

London - Apple announced in London on Tuesday that wireless carrier O2, a unit of Spain's Telefonica, will be the exclusive U.K. carrier of the iPhone when it launches there on Nov. 9.

London - Europe's largest mobile phone retailer, Carphone Warehouse, has announced the launch of a new music download service that features more than 2.5 million tracks and is compatible with most MP3 players and mobile phones that support the Windows Media Audio format. MyMobileMusic.co.uk also features "Music Insurance," a plan that replaces customers' entire downloaded music library if their computer or MP3 player is damaged or stolen.