MONTREAL – While the financial press churns out many stories on the Bell Canada auction, some saying there are three bids valuing the company at $41 or $42 a share, in cash and others saying there are higher bids that but not all-cash, Bell Canada Enterprises has been tight-lipped.
Some of the reports said a decision on the winning bidder for the company will be announced today and some even say that Telus might come back to the table.
Canada’s largest telco has been for sale for a while and a number of entities have expressed interest.
"(T)he Board of Directors…
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FAIR IS FAIR, RIGHT? On Tuesday, Cartt.ca presented one side of the advanced wireless auction debate through an interview with Videotron CEO Robert Dépatie.
On Wednesday, Rogers Wireless president Rob Bruce (pictured below) sat down – along with RCI vice-president, regulatory, Ken Englehart – with Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien to swing back, so to speak, and talk about RCI’s reply comments to Industry Canada on the potential for new rules on this auction and what they hope will happen.
What follows is an edited transcript.
Greg O’Brien: Well, let’s start with today’s filing. What does it say…
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THE ARGUMENTS FILED yesterday with Industry Canada on each side of the advanced wireless spectrum auction debate haven’t changed in a month, but circumstances have.
Reply comments on the spectrum auction framework were due into the ministry yesterday. As most will recall, the established players want an unfettered auction for new spectrum that will enable all sorts of new applications and services beyond just voice while potential newcomers want it good and fettered. The fight is still the same.
The three incumbents, Bell Canada, Rogers Communications and Telus, all argue the same thing as they did 36 days…
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THOSE IN FAVOUR OF an advance wireless spectrum auction that imposes limits on the big incumbent wireless operators were given a huge gift last week when word leaked out that Telus would make a bid to buy Bell Canada.
After weeks of pounding away at a message that said any auction which placed spectrum caps or set aside some spectrum for newcomers was an unconscionable subsidy for large corporations that Canadians would ultimately pay for, Telus dramatically changed tactics once the news broke about its involvement with Bell.
Suddenly Telus CEO Darren Entwistle and his senior executives said they…
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MONTREAL – With bids due this week, perhaps this morning, and rumors swirling all around, here’s where the perplexing BCE bid brouhaha stands right now.
* According to a report in the Globe and Mail, both Onex Corp. and the Caisse de depot et placement due Quebec have decided not to take part in the bid for BCE with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and U.S. private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts Co., potentially scuttling that bid.
* The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan told Reuters that it will definitely make a bid. Teachers is currently Bell’s…
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VANCOUVER – Canadians aren’t exactly in love with the two largest telcos getting together in a merger, but they say they really fear an American owning Bell Canada.
In an online survey of 1,177 Canadians done last week by polling firm Angus Reid, 44% of respondents said the proposed purchase of Bell by Telus makes them uncomfortable, even if the service is not affected, while 42% see no problem with the deal.
However, 65% of Canadians prefer a Bell-Telus merger over a Bell partnership with a U.S. company.
The provincial breakdown shows that at least 61% of respondents in…
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TORONTO – Billing itself as "The Canadian Solution", Canadian investment banker Catalyst Asset Management has announced a bid for Bell Canada Enterprises which, on the face of it, presents no regulatory hurdles whatsoever.
The bid, the fifth one to become public, would maintain Bell Canada as a stand-alone public company, and would benefit "all Canadians and Canada," says the press release.
Catalyst’s proposed transaction would be completed by way of an exchange offer by a Canadian Corporation formed exclusively for this purpose. That new company will offer one "stapled security" in exchange for each outstanding common share of Bell…
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By Greg O’Brien
IF THERE WERE NO big bogeymen around to scare the federal government into re-jigging an open wireless spectrum auction to favour such things as spectrum caps, or spectrum set-asides – and then mandated roaming – there is now, with the announcement that Telus is an active participant in the expected sale of Bell Canada Enterprises.
The press release arrived just after 8 p.m. last night and even though it means little right now, you’ve got to believe that the folks in Ottawa at Industry Canada who are deciding on the rules for the advanced wireless spectrum auction…
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CHICAGO – Microsoft’s newest version of its IPTV platform was unveiled over the weekend at telecom conference NXTComm.
Featuring several new multimedia capabilities, including in-home personal music and photo sharing, dynamic MultiView (multiple picture-in-picture) capabilities, Multimedia Application Environment for development of interactive services and advanced applications, and digital terrestrial television (DTT) support, both Bell Canada and Telus use and have plans for deeper use of the Microsoft IPTV platform.
Microsoft also introduced the Microsoft Mediaroom Application Development toolkit, which provides service providers and third-party developers with tools to create compelling, revenue-generating TV-based applications that run on the platform.
With…
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BANFF – Although the combination of two major regulated TV assets was the talk of the 2007 Banff World Television Festival (Hello, Rogers/Citytv), the focus of the event’s final panel was on the potential impact of unregulated new media vs. the fortunes of old media.
In fact, the first question posed by moderator (and festival CEO) Robert Montgomery during his closing session on the BWTVF green Paper to the diverse collection of opinion leaders was: Will the TV industry collapse in the face of broadband Internet and other unregulated platforms?
The question may sound like a Chicken Little approach…
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