Jay Thomson has joined the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) as vice-president of regulatory and policy. He will be responsible for regulatory matters dealing with programming content and social policy issues as they pertain to private broadcasters, including policy development, industry analysis, strategic planning and advocacy with government and industry stakeholders.
Thomas was vice-president of legal and regulatory affairs at the now-defunct Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA), where he worked heavily on Internet retransmission issues. After the CCTA folded, he moved to Telus Communications, where he was assistant vice-president of broadband policy. He has also worked as legal counsel…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA and GATINEAU – It’s been nearly two years, a court appeal and many complaints since the original decision, but the CRTC today revealed how the $650 million or so in the so-called deferral accounts will be spent.
The Commission approved several initiatives that will benefit Canadians with disabilities and expand broadband services to rural and remote communities. The major local telephone companies were also directed by the Commission to finalize proposals for the dispersal of the funds in their deferral accounts.
"Today’s decision will not only make telecommunications services more accessible to all Canadians, but also…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER and MONTREAL – Telus and Emergis will soon be one.
The companies today announced that a total of approximately 84,876,494 common shares of Emergis representing approximately 94% of the outstanding common shares (on a fully-diluted basis) were validly deposited to the $763 million offer to buy made by Telus, which expired at 5 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) on January 16, 2008.
"We are very pleased with the strong acceptance of our offer," said Joe Natale, president of Telus Business Solutions, in a press release, "and we welcome the Emergis team and its CEO François Côté to the…
Continue Reading
MISSISSAUGA – The Canadian Satellite Users Association (CSUA) will be changing its name to the Canadian Broadcast Distribution Association, effective next week.
The new name, and acronym – CBDA – better reflects the work mandate of the association over the recent years.
“The mandate has shifted from a focus solely on the satellite distribution networks to all the distribution platforms available to broadcasters to deliver their signals,” said Chris Bell, chairman of CSUA. “The expanding mandate has attracted interest from non-satellite distributors with both Rogers and Telus members of the association, “ added Gordon Lee, vice-chair.
“The annual conference…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – While Telus declined to make any response, a weekend report that said the company may spend as much as $500 million to swap its wireless technology to the GSM standard, set markets buzzing Monday.
Right now, Both Telus and Bell Canada operate CDMA wireless networks, which to many, are more limited technologically than GSM, due in no small part to the fact that most of the rest of the world is GSM-dominated. Network and handset gear manufacturers build to the GSM standard first, such as the Apple iPhone, which is a GSM product.
Rogers is the lone…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Telus said this week that the statutory waiting period under the pre-merger notification provisions of the Competition Act (Canada) expired on December 17, 2007 in connection with its offer to buy all of the common shares of Emergis Inc. for $8.25 in cash.
As well, announced Telus, the Commissioner of Competition has also advised that she does not intend to challenge the $763 million transaction announced late November, under the merger provisions of the Competition Act.
“This fulfills the condition of the Offer relating to the Competition Act (Canada), but the Offer continues to be subject to…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Telus has purchased 41,200 more common shares of Emergis through the Toronto Stock Exchange. As of the close of business of the TSX today, Telus owned directly or indirectly 1,017,000 common shares.
The company this month bid $763 million to buy Emergis outright.
“The highest price paid by Telus for Common Shares purchased today was C$8.19 per share and the average price paid per share was C$8.19. This is Telus’ third purchase of Common Shares through the facilities of the TSX since Telus’s indirect wholly-owned subsidiary 6886116 Canada Ltd. mailed its offer (the "Telus Offer") to…
Continue Reading
IT WASN’T SO LONG AGO when Telus was just the Alberta telephone company with little to no presence anywhere in Eastern Canada.
Now, thanks to the exponential growth of wireless (buying Clearnet proved a good idea) and huge wins on the business telecom services side, the former provincial telephone monopoly is a national communications conglomerate with well over 10,000 employees just in Ontario and Quebec. In 2000, its workers in the two provinces numbered in the hundreds.
The man at the top of this unprecedented growth in Eastern Canada has been Joe Natale, executive vice-president and president, Telus Business…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Canada’s second-largest telco Telus is predicting its recent history of record growth in revenue and earnings per share will continue in 2008, despite a bit of a dip in the latter part of fiscal 2007.
"Telus continues to execute on all fronts as we continue to grow revenue and earnings and use our robust cash flow to make investments for future growth while maintaining an orientation to return capital to our investors through continued dividend increases and share repurchases," said Robert McFarlane, executive vice-president and CFO, in a statement this morning.
Telus is targeting six to eight per…
Continue Reading
HAMILTON – Kids’ Health Links Foundation, McMaster Children’s Hospital and Telus today announced the launch of Upopolis.com, the first secure online social network for kids in hospital care.
(Ed note: After seeing it first-hand earlier today, this is one excellent idea.)
Powered by Telus, Upopolis.com provides the best features of social networking for young patients who often feel isolated when they’re in the hospital. It will provide a personal profile, secure mail, instant chat, discussion boards, personal blogs and links to child-friendly games. The site also provides unique features to kids in hospital like a homework site to stay…
Continue Reading
