(Reuters) – Canada on Friday gave the final approval for Rogers Communications Inc’s C$20 billion ($15 billion) buyout of Shaw Communications Inc, clearing the deal that will create the country’s No. 2 telecoms company.
The green light came as Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois-Philippe Champagne agreed to the transfer of wireless licenses held by Shaw’s Freedom Mobile unit to Quebecor Inc under some conditions.
Here is the snapshot of key events in Rogers-Shaw merger:
Date Development
March 15, Rogers Communications says it will buy Shaw for
2021 about C$20 billion ($16.02 billion)
Aug. 5, 2021 The Canadian regulator starts to look into the
bid and obtains court orders to advance its
review
Jan. 10, Rogers appoints insider and industry veteran
2022 Tony Staffieri as president and CEO to lead the
company through Shaw’s acquisition
May 9, 2022 Canada’s antitrust agency seeks to block
Rogers-Shaw $16 billion merger
May 30, 2022 Rogers agrees with Canada’s competition bureau
to put Shaw merger on hold
June 3, 2022 Rogers asks tribunal to scrap the competition
bureau’s rejection, argues the merger will
create more competition rather than stifle it
June 17, Antitrust regulator says it remains opposed to
2022 Rogers plan to buy Shaw
June 18, Quebecor agrees to buy Shaw unit Freedom Mobile
2022 for an enterprise value of C$2.85 bln ($2.19
bln) to allay anti-competition concerns
June 24, Canada’s Rogers, Shaw and competition watchdog
2022 agree to start mediation
July 6, 2022 Rogers says talks to discuss possible remedies
to the blocked takeover of Shaw did not result
in a resolution
July 22, Canada’s antitrust agency says needs more time
2022 to investigate concession offered by Rogers
July 27, Rogers extends deadline to close the buyout
2022
Aug. 12, Rogers and Shaw finalize agreement to sell
2022 Freedom Mobile to Videotron, a unit of Quebecor
Oct. 28, Rogers, Shaw and Quebecor fail to mediate their
2022 differences with Canada’s competition bureau
over the bid
Dec. 30, Canada’s competition tribunal approves Rogers
2022 bid for Shaw
A Federal Court put a
Jan. 3, 2023 stay
on the Rogers-Shaw merger
following a request from Canada’s Competition
Bureau after antitrust tribunal’s approval
Rogers says the merger has been
Jan. 17, delayed
2023 long enough and must be allowed to
proceed despite the competition bureau’s
opposition
A Canadian court
Jan. 24, dismisses
2023 the competition bureau’s effort to
overturn the merger approval by Canada’s
antitrust tribunal
Canada’s Competition Bureau
Jan. 25, drops
2023 plans to kill the deal following
two defeats in courts in less than a month
Rogers and Shaw
Jan. 30, extend
2023 deadline for their C$20 billion
($15.01 billion) merger to Feb. 17 from January
end awaiting government approval
Rogers
Feb. 17, further
2023 extends the deadline for the
merger with Shaw for the fourth time to March
31
Canada grants the
March 31, final
2023 approval for Rogers buyout of
Shaw, paving the way for the creation of the
country’s No. 2 telecoms company
(Reporting by Yuvraj Malik, Aditya Soni, Tiyashi Datta and Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Arun Koyyur)
