Globalive in the hunt for Shaw's wireless business: Lacavera
BNN Bloomberg
Globalive Founder and Chairman Anthony Lacavera is still aiming for an encore in Canada’s wireless business.
Globalive Founder and Chairman Anthony Lacavera is still aiming for an encore in Canada’s wireless business.
Lacavera confirmed in an email to BNN Bloomberg Monday that he wants to scoop up the wireless business that Rogers Communications Inc. is said to be shopping around as it attempts to close its takeover of Shaw Communications Inc.
“Globalive maintains its interest in the Freedom Mobile assets and have indicated (the) same publicly and privately to Rogers,” Lacavera wrote in the email.
He added he thinks “it is clear” based on recent government commentary that Shaw’s Freedom Mobile business will have to be sold to secure approval for the takeover.
In a statement on March 3, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said he is concerned about consolidation in the telecommunications sector and “will simply not permit” Rogers to acquire all of Shaw’s wireless licences.
Lacavera rose to prominence as the face of Canada’s upstart wireless industry when the government of Stephen Harper pressed for a fourth national wireless carrier. However, his Wind Mobile venture ran into numerous challenges in the ensuing years, including foreign ownership concerns tied to its backing by Orasom Telecom Holding of Egypt. Wind was eventually sold to Shaw in 2016 and rebranded as Freedom Mobile.
