Carphone Warehouse and Dixons Retail Group, which owns Currys and PC World, have announced a merger deal valuing the combined business at around £3.7 billion.

Sir Charles Dunstone owns a quarter of Carphone, the firm he founded in 1989, and is in line to become chairman of the newly merged retailer.

The firm has around 2,000 stores including more than 800 in the UK.

Dixons, founded in the 1930s and based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, has 943 stores in seven countries, including more than 500 in the UK. Together, the two companies would have annual sales of more than £12 billion.

Such a retail behemoth would be expected to have more power to stand up to upstart online competition from electrical retail rivals such as AO World.

The company said there will be “significant job creation” through the rollout of the combined Dixons Carphone retail offering, resulting in an increase of around 4% of the combined group’s workforce by the end of 2016.

This increase will be partially offset by the combination of operational and support functions, causing a 2% drop in total headcount.