UPDATE: BCE deal dead, company to pursue $1.2 billion break fee

TORONTO – Shortly after midnight this morning the companies which had been looking to buy BCE issued a press release saying that the agreement to acquire the big telco by a group of investors, led by the Ontario teachers Pension Plan, “has been terminated in accordance with its terms,” it reads. “Receipt of a solvency opinion from a nationally recognized valuation firm was included in the June 30, 2007 definitive agreement between the purchaser and BCE as a mutual closing condition,” says the release. “The agreement of the purchaser and BCE to both the selection of KPMG to serve as...