OTTAWA-
Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said he would not approve the proposed deal between Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc., although he left the door open for a revised agreement.
The proposed $26 billion merger would have meant the wholesale transfer of wireless spectrum licenses from Shaw to Rogers, which requires Champagne’s approval.
“Today I officially declined that request,” he said on Tuesday evening. “My decision officially closes this chapter of the originally proposed transaction.”
Shaw’s ownership of Freedom Mobile was widely seen as the biggest obstacle to the deal’s approval, and Montreal-based Videotron agreed earlier this year to buy it for $2.85 billion.
But Champagne said that before approving the agreement with Videotron, he required additional concessions.
He said Videotron should agree to keep Freedom’s wireless licenses for at least 10 years.
“A new service provider has to be around for the long haul,” he said.
Second, he said he would “expect to see” wireless service prices in Ontario and Western Canada drop about 20%, bringing them into line with Videotron’s current Quebec offerings.
Champagne did not say whether a successful sale of Freedom Mobile would mean the Rogers-Shaw deal might be approved after all.
In addition to Champagne’s approval, the Rogers-Shaw deal requires the green light from the Commissioner of Competition and the CRTC.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission offered conditional approval for the broadcast portion of the deal in March.
In March, the CRTC approved Rogers’ acquisition of Shaw’s broadcasting services and set out a series of conditions the company must meet. Mediation is scheduled for later this week between the Commissioner of Competition and Rogers and Shaw.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on October 25, 2022.
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