Rogers is still poised to gain almost half a million new wireless subscribers from its proposed $26 billion acquisition of Shaw Communications Inc., despite selling Shaw-owned Freedom Mobile to Quebecor — reports The Globe and Mail.
Rogers, Shaw, and Quebecor last week announced they had struck an agreement for the Quebec-based telecom operator to purchase Freedom Mobile. The deal comprises Freedom’s 1.7 million customers, infrastructure, wireless licenses, and retail stores. However, the deal does not include 450,000 Shaw Mobile customers in Alberta and B.C.
Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri told analysts in weekend briefings that the company will retain these customers since neither Quebecor nor any other prospective Freedom buyers bid on the division.
While Shaw generates about $100 million in annual revenue from non-Freedom wireless subscribers, acquiring that business doesn’t make much sense for buyers since it relies heavily on bundling cellphone service together with Shaw’s cable and internet offerings.
Rogers ultimately accepted a $2.85 billion offer for Freedom Mobile from Quebecor, which was actually lower than a $3.75 billion offer from Anthony Lacavera, Freedom’s original founder.
Lacavera said on Saturday that Rogers chose to sell to Quebecor because it would be a less aggressive competitor. “Rogers has shopped this deal to a succession of billionaire friends and friendly parties who won’t compete with them and are willing to sell Freedom back to them at any time,” the Globalive Capital chairman said in an email.
Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO of Quebecor, called the agreement “a turning point for the Canadian wireless market.” Acquiring Freedom Mobile, which serves customers in Ontario, Alberta and B.C., will jumpstart Quebecor’s longstanding plans to expand nationally. Up until now, Quebecor and its Montreal-based cable subsidiary Videotron Ltd. have operated mainly in Quebec.
“Quebecor’s Videotron subsidiary is the strong fourth player who, coupled with Freedom’s solid footprint in Ontario and Western Canada, can deliver concrete benefits for all Canadians,” Péladeau said in a statement on Friday.
Rogers and Shaw decided have opted to divest Freedom Mobile to allay regulatory challenges to their merger. The Rogers-Shaw deal was greenlit by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in March, but still requires approval from the Competition Bureau and the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada.
The Competition Bureau has officially petitioned the competition tribunal to block the Rogers-Shaw merger. Both the Bureau and ISED Canada were opposed to letting Rogers absorb Freedom as part of its Shaw takeover and are seeking to keep a strong fourth wireless carrier alive.
Rogers believes the Quebecor deal will satisfy both authorities. Staffieri said in an email that the company has “worked very hard to find a new owner for Freedom that we believe meets the requirements that the government and regulators have laid out to promote competition and affordability in wireless.”
Regulators are yet to provide Rogers with feedback on the agreement to sell Freedom Mobile to Quebecor.
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I am cancelling all Shaw once my contract is done
Yup Iam cancelling all my services with shaw. Rogers is a greedy selfish ignorant abusive company that I dont want anything to do with.
Fair enough, but bear in mind that Rogers will be legally required to honour any contracts made with Shaw for at least the length of the remaining contract. Thus, if you have a good price for your current services, I would recommend just riding out the contract before jumping ship.
Yeah nice of you to point out the complete obvious scooby doo. If you didnt get it the first time I was agreeing with the OP.
There is absolutely no chance the competition bureau let’s this deal go through in any way that allows Rogers to keep these 450k subscribers in the west. Nor should they, in my opinion.
That’s an opinion, and probably not correct. The Competition Bureau wanted Rogers to sell Freedom to a serious competitor, and Quebecor has ambitions to become just that but had no foothold in the west. This gives them that, and that MAY be enough to sway the bureau. We’ll find out after the hearings on July 4th and 5th.
There is absolutely no chance the competition bureau let’s this deal go through in any way that allows Rogers to keep these 450k subscribers in the west. Nor should they, in my opinion.
I went to Wind Mobile (became Freedom Mobile) to get away from Rogers constantly pissing me off! If I get stuck with Rogers again I’m going to be ridiculously pissed off.
Did you actually read the article? Freedom Mobile is to be sold to Quebecor, so if you’re on Freedom now, they’ll either keep the name Freedom Mobile and carry on much as they are now, or they’ll rebrand Freedom to something else and you would be a (new name) customer. You would not be a Rogers customer.
I did read the article, specifically the part that the entire article is about which is that Rogers would retain the Freedom Mobile customers in BC and Alberta. I am one of those 450,000 customers.
They are retaining Shaw Mobile customers only. If you are with Freedom itself, you will not be impacted by this.
Yeah, I saw that just on rereading, was going to edit but disqus decided to stop working on my desktop chrome for some reason.
I do need to learn more about Quebecor, I assume they’re awful since that’s a safe bet with telecoms but we’ll see.