Rogers, Bell Canada acquires 75 per cent stake in MLSE
Posted Dec 9, 2011 09:14:36 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – Rogers announced Friday that it, along with Bell Canada, are jointly acquiring a net 75 per cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
Rogers and Bell will each have a 37.5 per cent share in MLSE, each shelling out $533-million.
MLSE held a news conference at 9:30 a.m. Friday to announce the new deal.
The drama surrounding the sale of the majority stake in MLSE has been like a soap opera, according to 1310News senior business editor Mike Eppel.
“It appears to me that when the [Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan] took the Leafs off the block, supposedly two weeks ago, that was basically to calm things down,” Eppel said.
But, now several reports suggest this situation is about to get a lot more intense.
The Toronto Sun‘s Lance Hornby said this deal — reportedly worth as much as $2-billion — might be in the finishing stages.
“Rather than go head-to-head, it looks like Bell and Rogers are going to join up, and you know, a lot of people were saying that if anybody was going to meet the Teachers’ price, it would have to be a combined resources of two big media giants, and certainly you can’t get any bigger than that,” Hornby said.
Two weeks ago, the Teachers’ announced they were taking the shares off the market after an eight-month search did not produce the desired price.
Hornby weighed in on why the Teachers’ decided to take the deal off the table.
“I think it might have been just a larger game of financial chicken, if you want, by pulling it off maybe both Bell and Rogers decided that they’re going to have to get together — that might have been the final push to get these two guys to settle,” he said.
Hornby also said he’s hearing an announcement could happen as early as Friday.
“It is almost a global entity at this stage, it’s worth a couple of billion dollars — very lucrative broadcast rights, it’s a consistent money maker. So there are a lot of reasons why you’d want to own it,” Eppel said.
Last week, Forbes pegged the Leafs’ value at $521-million.
