After today’s blockbuster announcement of Verizon and Vodafone completing a $130 billion deal, the CEO of the former has now confirmed with The Globe and Mail the company is not interested in coming to Canada:
Verizon Communications Inc. CEO Lowell McAdam says the U.S. telecom giant has no interest in expanding to Canada, according to an interview with Bloomberg.
Verizon spokesperson Bob Varettoni confirmed Mr. McAdam’s comments with The Globe via e-mail. “I can confirm that [Mr. McAdam] said at this point in time, Verizon does not have an interest in entering the Canadian wireless market.”
Verizon’s CEO says the speculation was “way overblown” and also noted the position on Canada had nothing to do with the Vodafone deal, in its interview with Bloomberg:
“Verizon is not going to Canada,” CEO Lowell McAdam said in a telephone interview. Speculation that the U.S.’s largest wireless company might try to compete in Canada was “way overblown,” he said.
McAdam said Verizon had limited interest in the Canadian market before it announced earlier today that it will buy Vodafone’s 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless for $130 billion — and none now.
Back in mid-June, Verizon’s CFO said the company was “looking at the opportunity” of expanding to Canada and “this is just us dipping our toe in the water.” It was then later rumoured the company had put out a $700 million bid to acquire WIND Mobile, plus was engaged in talks with Mobilicity.
Later in August, Verizon was reported to scrap its plans to bid on both newer wireless entrants. Looks like the writing was on the wall for Verizon in Canada at the time and the Vodafone deal has more than sealed the fate of the company’s expansion plans, despite some arguing with complete control of the company expansion outside of the USA might be possible.
Canada’s incumbent carriers have spent millions over the past few months on an ad campaign against Verizon coming to the Canadian wireless market, in a war of words with the Federal government. Looks like Ottawa’s goal of having a fourth national wireless play has just hit a snag…
…more to follow
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I’m sure the big 3 are staring gleefully pressing their fingers together saying excellent.
Mr. Burns approves
Maybe more like, we just burnt millions of dollars on pure speculations and exploratory exercises. D’oh!
Verizon’s supposed offer was 700 million, does anyone know roughly how much Big 3 ended up spending in ads?
Don’t forget. We are part of the ads as well. We are being used by Verizon as free ads to build credit for them to buy Vodafone. Great job everyone. *clip clip*
WTF?
LOL its mind boggling.
Except for the fact that now we have to pay for the ad dollars that they spent.
We’ll that was anti climactic
Here’s hopping videotron goes national
Looks like it’s back to the drawing board for Ottawa. WIND Mobile is looking good right now to make a dent if they can get some decent spectrum.
They should be able to yep and it appears quebeccor won’t be able to shut them out again at the auction, which would be huge for wind
They will shut them out again cause Videotron don’t really like to compete. Man, I hate Videotron sometime even thought I’m with them cause I hate ROBELUS even more…
the rules are set up differently now, videotron wont be able to buy all available spectrum in quebec like they did before
Yes they will.
How are they suppose to buy the spectrum, they are cash strapped. Even so, if they can pull it off, that should get them network access to the other spectrum and maybe, better phones.
Company is business and its shareholders are looking for profit. No shareholder will invest money on a sinking ship even if that sinking ship is repairable. Even somehow they pull this off, they need some way to make back the money they invest. In the end, the customers will expect a higher fees.
If I am going to pay a higher fees, I am going with the Big 3 due to better network. Then we are back to square one again.
One last time… WTF?
lolwut?
Sell out.
Suck it Canadians!! Big 3 all the way!!
Of course Verizon has no interest in Canada! Can you blame them? We have the most anti competitive communications market. All thanks to red tape by the CRTC restricting foreign companies! The CRTC is the most anti business, anti competition government department. Needs to be abolished.
Its not just the CRTC, everything from banking to beer.
Gas, insurance, hydro…the lists go on.
Yeah this country needs an enema lol
Still think if they where smart they would buy out the spectrum. then they could sell it or rent it to the others.
Can’t agree more. Even if Verizon comes, it will be more like a grab and run kind of game for them. This market is too small for the big shark to stay long term.
again… WTF?
All those people banking on Verizon in Canada: hahahaha. You are all morons.
Go fuck yourself! You’re the moron for being happy that we will have years of no competition.
We need competition but not big huge shark like Verizon. We need company that will stick it out the hard time and slowly build its network. The shareholders in the US won’t let Verizon do that in Canada.
You truly are one of the most clueless people I have encountered.
This dude calls all of us Morons and my response to the dumb fuck gets deleted. I need you Al and Chrome to speak for me cause I can’t in polite terms because these people that are happy just confuse the fuck out of me and piss me off. Oh yeah I can’t forget about my buddy Ward 9, he speaks for us normal folks…
The folliclely impaired gentlemen appears to believe that hindsight is just as good as foresight. Actually, when I read that, I imagined a slapstick comedy with the moustache adorned villain sticking his head out from around a corner, ringing his hands, going “buhahaha”. I mean, he has no actual point to make and no contribution, so it’s just too silly to take seriously.
Having said that, I always remained skeptical that Verizon were coming once they pulled out of the Wind deal. But I wanted to believe.
I’m actually quite deflated. I want to hope “something” will happen with “some” company, be it a Canadian underdog, or a foreign company. However, the logic side of me says that likely won’t happen in the foreseeable future.
Yeah we’re fucked now… Time to bend over again for Robellus and upgrade my phone….
Fuck you too you little bitch. Do us all a favour and go kill yourself. Help your mother erase all those years of regret that she didn’t make your father wear a condom.
This is truly a sad day for any & all Canadians who are sick of oligopolies and were hoping for change. I wonder how much the big 3 paid Verizon to stay home? Well, I guess I’m one of those “morons” who’d hoped that Verizon (or another wireless provider) would have come to Canada and initiated competition but at least I have a full head of hair.
Hahaha Good for you for looking at the bright side, Nibs. Better to be a moron with hair than none…
Well fuck.
It’s inappropriate but there’s no better word.
All I can say is Lol. I didn’t care either way (there would have been and bad to Verizon coming), but to think of the scale of media attention this got for Verizon turning and saying “What, we’re not interested in Canada, calm down fools” is kind of halirious. Big 3 got a little worried :P. Well I guess it worked out for them anyways :).
“Good and Bad”
Really shows you how, instead of actually doing something to benifit their customers, the Big3 just resorted to scare tactics and it wasn’t even a sure thing. After all this I am even more disgusted with them. Soon I will be Rogers free for most things (still stuck with Fido, but they, for whatever reason, always seem nicer lol). been bell free for years.
There goes all those nice promos that they were giving out these last few weeks. And expect new higher prices in the coming weeks — they need to recoup the millions of dollars they’ve spent fighting Ottowa. LOL! smh