Rogers looks to longtime foe to help save $20B Shaw deal
BNN Bloomberg
To close one of Canada’s biggest-ever takeovers, Rogers Communications Inc. may need help from an unlikely ally: a rival telecommunications company led by an outspoken Quebec separatist with a penchant for lawsuits.
Rogers is trying to acquire Shaw Communications Inc. for about $20 billion (US$15.5 billion), but the deal is in jeopardy because the country’s Competition Bureau is trying to block it. Rogers is trying to solve the most difficult antitrust issue by selling Shaw’s wireless division, which competes in major markets such as Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver under the name Freedom Mobile.
That’s where Quebecor Inc. and its controlling shareholder, Pierre Karl Peladeau, enter the picture.
Peladeau has suggested numerous times that he would be interested in buying Freedom, under the right conditions. But until recently, Rogers has been focused on cutting a deal with other parties, including New York-based investment fund Stonepeak Partners LP, which controls Canada’s Xplornet Communications Inc.
