Rogers has announced it will acquire Canadian telecommunications company Cogeco in a $4.9 billion deal.
Altice USA will make a $10.3 billion CAD cash offer to buy Cogeco, and then sell the Canadian assets of the latter to Rogers for $4.9 billion.
Rogers says, “as the largest long-term shareholder of Cogeco, Rogers is supportive of the value being created for all shareholders with the significant premium in the Altice USA offer.”
Rogers owns 41% of Cogeco Inc.’s subordinate shares and 33% of Cogeco Communications’ subordinate shares.
“Under the stewardship of Mr. Audet, the Audet family, and the 4,500 Cogeco team members, Cogeco has built an iconic company in Canada and the United States. This meaningful offer reflects the tremendous accomplishments of the Audet family and Cogeco’s employees. Rogers is excited about the opportunity to expand its breadth of industry leading technologies and products to an additional 1.8 million homes and businesses,” said Joe Natale, President and CEO of Rogers Communications.
“We are pleased to present this very attractive offer for Cogeco, and are confident that Mr. Audet and the Cogeco boards will act in the best interest of all shareholders and fairly evaluate this offer. We look forward to the opportunity to extend Altice USA’s high-quality broadband, video, mobile, and news offerings to more than 1.1 million additional homes and businesses,” said Dexter Goei, Chief Executive Officer of Altice USA.
The all-cash offer from Altice USA and Rogers is subject to regulatory approvals is expected to close in six to nine months, if accepted by Cogeco.
Update: Cogeco has announced it will refuse the Altice USA and Rogers deal:
“The non-binding proposal of Altice USA and Rogers Communications Inc., which was pre-emptively announced today by Altice and Rogers, has been reviewed by Gestion Audem Inc., a company controlled by the members of the Audet family holding 69% of all voting rights of CGO which in turn controls 82.9% of all voting rights of CCA. Gestion Audem Inc. has already indicated that it does not intend to sell its shares and will not support the proposal.”
