BCE, the company that owns Bell Canada, had made an offer to acquire Shaw Communications before the deal with Rogers was finalized.
Regulatory filings released on April 23rd reveal that Rogers had outbid a company referred to as “Party A” before its deal with Shaw was secured. BCE has now confirmed that it was “Party A.”
“Yes Bell is Company A described in the proxy. We’ve made a number of successful strategic acquisitions over the last decade and look closely at opportunities that may work,” a spokesperson for Bell said in an email to MobileSyrup.
“We determined this opportunity wasn’t in the best interests of our stakeholders,” the spokesperson noted.
The regulatory filings outline that Rogers offered $35.00 per share and BCE proposed $37.00 per share. Rogers then increased its offer to $40.50 per share and BCE raised its proposal to $39.25 and then matched Rogers’ offer to $40.50 per share.
However, the filing states that BCE’s proposal “contained certain regulatory issues that had previously been identified as being of concern.” Shaw’s board had concluded that BCE’s proposal included conditions that the company couldn’t accept.
The document outlines that in early March, “Party A had effectively withdrawn from the process as Party A was not prepared to amend its proposal regarding certain regulatory issues.”
A few days later, Rogers finalized its takeover agreement. The deal, which is valued at $26 billion, was then publicly announced on March 15th.
The proposed acquisition is subject to approval from the CRTC, the Competition Bureau and the department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, which isn’t expected until next year.
