TORONTO – Rogers Communications founder and CEO Ted Rogers said Monday his company was approached by at least some off the private equity players looking to take Bell Canada Enterprises private.
The response from the CEO whose stated goal is to beat Bell? "Of course, we told them all to go to hell.”
For Rogers, who wouldn’t say who approached them, it’s all about execution, shoulder to the wheel, nose to the grindstone, the "boring" work of making sure customers are happy.
"It’s very, very important to maximize what we have, and for the past number of years, we have been doing just that. It sounds very boring but we’re focusing on what we have and improving it," he said. "The board approved today, very large and significant increases in that activity – in dollars committed to that activity. In order to protect the company in the future."
"We should just keep doing what we’re doing and not get burned by all this high-falutin’ stuff going on – suits walking around having meetings all the time," Rogers said.
"I can’t imagine anything worse for a company than having all of these suits going in and out of your head office, morning noon and night. It utterly disrupts operations."
Other notes from RCI’s AGM press conference:
* Rogers’ operations have been clipping along swimmingly these days, so much so that the company announced a tripling of its dividend to 50 cents per share.
* Rogers will launch its pay audio service likely before the end of 2007, said Rogers Media CEO Tony Viner. The company plans to make it available to any cable operator who wishes it and will also push it out across the web and wireless platforms.
* The dual mode phone is coming pretty soon. Handsets that double as a wireless cell phone when out and about and then a cordless phone that communicates wirelessly over a broadband connection when a user is in home or in a hot spot has been deployed in the U.K. and other regions. When asked about it by Cartt.ca wireless president Rob Bruce said its launch is "not that far," to which Ted Rogers quickly amended: "it’s not that close either."
The technology works, but it’s just a matter of making sure at least some decent sized segment of customers want it, added RCI president and COO Nadir Mohamed.
* Other services coming in the "immediate future" include easier wireless e-commerce and security – where a subscriber is rung if their home is broken into – and then can even remotely control cameras with their mobile handsets to see what has happened.
* Rogers Sportsnet will move from the CTV HQ at 9 Channel Nine in Agincourt to the Rogers Campus at Bloor and Jarvis in downtown Toronto this fall. Construction is well underway and once the new studio opens, it will likely be the first all-digital (i.e. no tape at all) high definition studio in Canada.
