MONTREAL – BCE Inc. on Wednesday said it and its proposed buyer – a consortium led by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan – will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court the Quebec Court of Appeal’s decision to deny the $52-billion leveraged buyout.
Some disgruntled Bell bondholders are attempting to block the deal that they say loads BCE up with debt and makes their bonds a riskier investment.
“BCE never attempted to justify the fairness and reasonableness of an arrangement that results in a significant adverse economic impact on the debentureholders while at that same time it accords a substantial…
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TORONTO – The banks backing the $52-billion leveraged buyout of BCE Inc. are looking to renegotiate a lower per share price, according to media reports.
Some analysts say the banks, including Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and Royal Bank of Scotland, were in a meeting Wednesday looking for $39.25 a share rather than the $42.75 originally agreed upon.
Numerous reports state the financiers and the buyers in the proposed purchase have “serious and significant disagreements” over some of the lending terms.
Skittish given the disastrous credit market and mounting bad loans, the banks are backtracking on lending money…
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MONTREAL – Bell Canada will launch an online movie and TV downloading store on Wednesday, cartt.ca has learned.
Customers will be able to download video, including full-length movies, TV shows, music videos and concerts, to their computers or Archos Media Portable player. The shop will be open to all Canadians with a broadband connection, and won’t be restricted to Sympatico subscribers.
Bell is apparently attempting to tap into the trend toward more and more online video downloading with its online Bell Video store.
Once the content is downloaded, it can be watched without an Internet connection on laptops, in the…
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MONTREAL – BCE Inc. announced Tuesday that it has been told by the Quebec Court of Appeal that its decisions on the appeals filed by disgruntled holders of Bell Canada debentures related to the company’s sale and other matters will be released at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21.
The $52-billion leveraged buyout of BCE Inc. by a consortium led by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan was challenged in the courts by Bell bondholders. The bondholders appealed five recent rulings by Quebec Superior Court Justice Joel Silcoff that sided with Bell.
The stock has recently traded at well below…
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NEW YORK – The American banks that have committed themselves to backing the $52 billion leveraged buyout of Bell Canada are seeking to renegotiate the deal, says a Monday story in the New York Times.
According to the story, the banks want new terms, including higher interest rates and stronger protections for the banks, as well as a lower purchase price, which is currently set at Cdn$42.75 per share. Shares closed at $38.80 on Friday and the Toronto Stock Exchange is closed today for the Victoria Day long weekend but BCE shares trading in New York were down over $2,…
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KELOWNA – The primary need when disaster happens anywhere is communication. Help can’t be co-ordinated or properly delivered if people can’t talk to each other.
And if the phone lines are down and police radios out of commission, aid workers will certainly struggle.
It was this primary challenge Telus had in mind when it built two SatCOLT units (Cost: $1.3 million each). SatCOLT stands for Satellite Cellsite on Light Truck and was pioneered Stateside by Sprint and is essentially a fully mobile telephone system.
“It’s a mobile cell site on wheels,” says Ken Green, the man in charge of…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC on Wednesday denied a request by the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) to stop Bell from “throttling” Internet traffic of competitor ISPs on an interim basis until it makes a final ruling on the matter.
In its decision, the CRTC denied CAIP’s request for interim relief because the regulator found CAIP did not present sufficient evidence of irreparable harm to its members as a result of Bells “traffic throttling” activities.
This is an unfortunate decision, said CAIP Chair Tom Copeland. “We feel the Commission has misapplied the test for interim relief by deeming the…
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TORONTO – The Ontario Superior Court of Justice this month dismissed a claim requiring the Inukshuk Wireless Partnership (Rogers and Bell) to return MCS spectrum to a subsidiary of Rogers.
UBS Wireless Services Inc. subsidiary Unique Broadband Systems Inc. started litigation against Allstream and Rogers subsidiary Microcell and two of its subsidiaries, including Inukshuk Internet Inc., in April 2004. UBS alleges that there were breaches of contract, confidence and fiduciary duties regarding a signed agreement involving the MCS spectrum.
After Rogers and Bell asked Industry Canada to transfer the MCS spectrum out of the companies being litigated against and…
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“IN A DIGITAL CONTENT world, all stakeholders must accept greater risk,” is a single line from the final reply to the CRTC by Telus to the Commission’s policy review of broadcast distribution undertakings and specialty services.
Final replies from stakeholders were due into the Commission last Thursday.
It’s a key line, because it lies at the heart of what’s at stake for every media company in Canada – heck, in the western world, really, and certainly for Canadian specialty channels, OTA broadcasters and BDUs. With the digital media world comes new opportunities, but also more risk than the tried…
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GATINEAU – When rookie CRTC commissioner Michel Morin first unveiled his possible points plan for specialty channels during last month’s BDU and specialty policy hearing, many were left scratching their heads.
But, as he put more meat on the bones of his idea, as it were, as the hearing progressed, stakeholders began to mull it over and some were taking it pretty seriously. In fact, the Commission asked for comments from stakeholders to address it specifically.
However, upon further review, most have lauded Morin’s intentions – more Canadian content to more Canadians – but dismissed his idea.
Morin proposed…
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