MONTREAL – Quebecor Media announced today the sale of its Jobboom job search website and Reseau Contact dating website to e-commerce company Mediagrif Interactive Technologies for $65 million.
The deal for Mediagrif’s acquisition of Jobboom will close tomorrow, with the Reseau Contact deal expected to close Oct. 31, 2013. Quebecor Media president Robert Depatie said the management and employees of both companies will remain in Quebec. “We are particularly happy to see these two platforms remain in the hands of a well-established Quebec company,” Depatie said in a release.
“These acquisitions represent a unique opportunity…
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MONTREAL – Videotron and Rogers announced an agreement late Wednesday to bring LTE to even more customers in the province of Québec and the Ottawa region.
Under a new 20-year agreement, the two companies will pool their efforts to quickly build out and operate a shared LTE wireless network, the most advanced wireless technology in the world. This network will deliver an optimal user experience for consumers and businesses in both key markets (and perhaps let Videotron launch the iPhone, which does not work on its current AWS spectrum).
In addition to the network sharing agreement, Videotron and Rogers have also…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC will announce its decision on the renewal of the broadcasting licences for the CBC at 11 a.m. Tuesday morning.
The most contentious issue of the hearing, held back in November, was the CBC’s request for permission to sell advertising on Radio 2. Struggling with cuts to its funding in the past 24 months, the Corp wants to be able to earn more cash by selling advertising into the indie/classical/eclectic music station – and it also promised not to change the nature of the service in order to pursue higher ratings and increased ad dollars.
Many Canadian private…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor announced today it has acquired Gestev, a Quebec City-based event management company.
Founded in 1992, Gestev has organized several high-profile events in the Quebec City region, including the Red Bull Crashed Ice extreme race, the International Mountain Bike Festival and World Cup (known as the Velirium), the Transat Quebec Saint-Malo, Sprint Quebec (FIS Cross-Country World Cup), and the FIS Snowboard World Championships.
Gestev co-founders Patrice Drouin and Chantal Lachance will move with the company to Quebecor with a mandate to promote the Quebec City amphitheatre as a hub of entertainment, sport, and…
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GATINEAU – In their final written submissions to the CRTC on the proposed purchase of Astral Media by Bell Canada, various interveners say there are no words, no new rules the Commission can write which will sufficiently protect the Canadian TV system from the market power of a combined Bell/Astral.
That, tied to the fact Bell has told the Commission in no uncertain terms it will not proceed with the merger should it be required to divest any other assets, means the whole deal should be denied, just like the first one was rejected last fall. ( Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Canadian wireless operators remain largely unconvinced that Industry Canada’s proposed changes to spectrum licence transfers will be good for the wireless market. New entrants and incumbents alike are opposed to any rule changes that would limit a secondary spectrum trading market.
Mobilicity acknowledges that the department is trying to create a more competitive wireless market and took a first good step in setting aside spectrum in the 2008 Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) auction. But the upstart says “the imposition of additional vague, open-ended restrictions on the transferability of spectrum” won’t help new entrants raise the capital they need…
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Story and photo by Steve Faguy
MONTREAL – After Telus, Rogers, EastLink, Cogeco and Quebecor, the last word on Bell’s failed relationship with competing BDUs went to the little guys. And they had some eye-opening facts and figures to back up their claims that Bell isn’t playing fair.
“We are not here to engage in regulatory arbitrage,” said Jim Deane, chair of the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, which represents about 115 small cable companies across Canada. “CCSA members are fighting for their lives.”
Speaking as one of the final interveners in the hearing over Bell Canada?s proposed purchase of Astral Media, the…
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MONTREAL – In a lengthy appearance before the CRTC commissioners on Wednesday (more than twice as long as either Rogers or Telus the day prior) Cogeco Cable left no doubt where it stood on the question of Bell Canada buying Astral Media: There can be no compromises, no new regulatory caveats that make this deal palatable, and so the merger must be denied. Again.
Cogeco’s argument was similar to the one EastLink made earlier on Wednesday, but the Montreal-based cable and radio firm offered up more detail. CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais has asked the opposing interveners Tuesday and Wednesday for…
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Story and photo by Steve Faguy
MONTREAL – Maintaining the CRTC has no alternative but to "categorically refuse" Bell's purchase of Astral Media, Quebecor refused to provide the Commission with a list of assets that the combined company should be forced to divest if the transaction is approved.
"If approved, such a project would inevitably create prejudicial repercussions for consumers, the public interest, broadcasting policy, the Canadian broadcasting system and the Canadian companies that work in it," Quebecor CEO Robert Dépatie told the commissioners on Wednesday morning during its appearance as an intervener. Joined by TVA group president Pierre Dion and…
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MONTREAL – Declining newspaper advertising revenue in Quebecor’s news media division sent the company’s first quarter profits plunging, despite increased revenue from its telecommunications business.
Quebecor recorded Q1 2013 profit of $35.6 million, or $0.57 per basic share, on revenues of $1.05 billion, basically half of Q1 2012’s profit of $71.4 million, or $1.13 per basic share. Overall revenues decreased by 0.9% to $1.05 billion. While Quebecor’s telecommunications revenue increased by 3.6% to $23.0 million, that was offset by sharper declines in news media (down 10.9%), leisure and entertainment (down 9.4%), broadcasting (down 2.1%),…
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