Bell Canada's Western Canada Waterloo
To no one's surprise, Manitoba Telecom exercised an option that forced Bell Canada to buy MTS's stake in Bell West for $650-million - give or take a few million bucks. MTS CEO Bill Fraser should give a large bonus and a pair of centre-ice tickets to the next Manitoba Moose hockey game to the person who managed to insert the “put option” in the deal that created Bell West in 2002. You can argue that Bell West has long-term potential to take market share from Telus Corp., but it is a big-time money loser right now. You can bet that Mr. Fraser will find good use for the money, which could see him hand it back to shareholders via a special dividend. Then, there's that income trust proposal a mysterious institutional investor is pursuing. Stay tuned for this exciting telecom story.
