TORONTO and MONTREAL – Look Communications is selling its spectrum and broadcast license for $80 million in cash to Bell Canada and Rogers Communications, through their joint venture Inukshuk Wireless Partnership.
Under the agreement, Inukshuk will buy Look’s 92 MHz of contiguous licensed spectrum in Ontario and Quebec covering approximately 18 million people and 1.8 billion MHz/Pops, plus its mobile broadcast license which has been renewed by the CRTC through August 2011.
"We have long believed that our assets held value given the promise of mobile broadband. That promise is becoming a reality for Canadian businesses and consumers, both of whom will benefit from the mobile entertainment, information and communication services that are now available," said Gerry McGoey, Look’s vice chairman and CEO, in the statement announcing the sale.
As part of the agreement, Look agreed to resolved its outstanding litigation with Bell. Also and as per Rogers’ request, Look’s parent company Unique Broadband Systems settled its litigation with Microcell, a subsidiary of Rogers.
Inukshuk Wireless is a partnership between Bell and Rogers created to build and manage a Canada-wide wireless broadband network licensed by Industry Canada. The network is designed to connect customers to the Internet and provide secure wireless data transmission using existing cellular towers belonging to both Bell and Rogers.
The sale agreement is subject to Court approval, but Look said that it will commence "the orderly wind down" of its present operations over the next 90 days. Look received Court and shareholder approval in January to sell off its assets.
