Will KKR be Michael Sabia’s Legacy?

By Mark Evans in Main Page, Telecom Acquisitions, Financing 5 Comments

Sabia
Since taking over as BCE Inc.’s CEO in 2001, Michael Sabia has had a a pretty rough go of it trying to restructure the company amid increasingly fierce competition. Five years into the job, you have to wonder what Sabia’s legacy will be. Despite a lot of unglamorous blocking and tackling, he hasn’t created much shareholder value, especially compared with how Rogers and Telus have performed. And if you look at BCE’s portfolio, the local phone business is under siege; the satellite-TV unit is being outflanked by cable rivals such as Rogers; and the wireless division has been struggling for several years at a time when the wireless market has been enjoying robust growth.

The question now is whether Sabia’s legacy will be Kohlberg Kravis Roberts amid a report in the Globe & Mail that the New York-based LBO firm may be preparing a friendly takeover bid that could be worth $30-billion. Since KKR is not allowed to acquire BCE due to foreign ownership restrictions, the G&M suggests KKR is trying to recruit Canadian partners such as the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

If the deal actually materializes, it would be a major development but not terribly surprising given there has been some chatter about leveraged buy-outs of BCE and Telus. One thing you have to wonder about is whether these kind of deals will have any impact on whether foreign ownership rules will be overhauled. If that happens, the telecom market in Canada will be wide open for all kinds of deals.

Update: Bloomberg reports that BCE is not in talks with KKR.

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A Code for Blogging?

By Mark Evans in Aside No Comments

In light of the death threats against Kathy Sierra, a number of people – notably Tim O’Reilly – are calling for a code of conduct for bloggers. In theory, it’s a good idea but, man, it seems like a monster to create unless you’re talking about really broad guidelines such as “Don’t Be Evil”.

The GPhone..and then the GHome?

By Mark Evans in Google, Main Page 2 Comments

So the mystery of the GPhone has finally sorta been solved – and as Engadget suggests it’s a phone with Google, not a Google phone. It turns out the mysterious Asian hardware supplier is LG Electronics, which will load up a bunch of Google services (Google Maps, GMail and Blogger) into millions of mobile phones. LG and Google will jointly market the devices – with at least 10 coming out this year. Perhaps even more intriguing is the plan for both companies to collaborate to “develop digitized homes in the future” – the GHome?

Canada’s Murky Local Phone Rules

By Mark Evans in ILEC News, Analysis, Main Page, Telecom Regulation No Comments

For anyone interested in telecom competition in Canada, Fort McMurray, Alberta could be a fascinating case study on what the future holds. As the town booms because of all the oil activity, Shaw (Canada’s second-largest cableco) has emerged as a major telephone service provider to the point where Telus applied to the CRTC to deregulate the market. Telus’ request was based on its belief that competitors now have 25% of the market, which meets a key criteria established by the CRTC. The CRTC, however, turned down Telus’ request because the regulator claims Telus hasn’t met “quality of service” standards, which Telus claims are unattainable.

In a nutshell, it’s a messy situation that reflects the continued murkiness of the deregulation of Canada’s $10-billion local telephone market despite decisions made by the CRTC. As much as the CRTC wants, in theory, to deregulate the local market, it is obviously intent on micro-managing the process so competition can flourish. It seems like the CRTC wants to eat its cake and have it too.

This regulatory uncertainty will likely compel the federal government (specifically Industry Minister Maxime Bernier) to directly get involved. Bernier is proposing that carriers can apply for deregulation in residential markets where there are at least three phone providers, and business markets with at least two suppliers. There would also be nine quality of service standards to meet. Bernier’s proposal is a different flavor of deregulation than the CRTC’s current rules. Of course, there are a lot of unknowns such as who qualifies as a service provider and whether these suppliers would have to have a minimum number of customers so it’s unclear if Bernier’s plan will work any better than the CRTC’s.

Note: Check out these stories in the Globe & Mail and National Post, as well as this blog post by Mark Goldberg.

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Is Podcasting That Hot?

By Mark Evans in Main Page, Media, Podcasting 2 Comments

Microphone
Putting aside the crazy notion that pod-vertising will be bigger than blog-vertising by 2010/2011, the podcasting movement looks be gaining momentum given the organizers of PodCampNYC.org have had 850 people register for the event, which happens April 6/7. The conference is happening on a holiday weekend and it’s free so maybe that explains the interest. (Note: PodCamp Toronto, which took place last month, was a huge success)

Then again, podcasting is really the new blogging for many people. By that, I mean a lot of people are already blogging, and looking for next new thing aside from putting a bunch of widgets and Javascript tools all over their sites. This is where podcasting comes into play as bloggers – and others – try to get a handle on what’s involved (a digital recorder and a microphone), how much work you have to do to create one (not much, although good production quality requires some work and skills), and whether it’s any fun (definitely). As someone who’s been podcasting for about a year (Talking Tech), I’m starting to get curious about video-blogs, although I’m not sure the world is ready to see myself, Kevin Restivo and Duncan Stewart in the flesh yet.

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Shatner & Rogers: What’s Up?

By Mark Evans in Aside 2 Comments

William Shatner and Rogers will be holding a press conference on Monday to unveil a “North American-first”. Hmm, I wonder what’s up?

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