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Friday, February 12, 2010 1:15 PM

What Shaw stands to gain from CanWest

Andrew Willis

As the media world digests Shaw Communications' shocking bid for CanWest Global Communications, there’s an emerging view that convergence is back.

Shaw executives are pitching this deal to analysts as part of a strategy to unite more media content behind a cable and planned wireless network. That strategy implies Shaw will hold on to CanWest’s line up of specialty television networks, rather than vend them to corporate cousin Corus Entertainment.

Shaw is paying creditors an undisclosed amount – less than $100-million is an excellent guess – for a 20 per cent equity stake in CanWest, and 80 per cent voting control. If regulators approve, there will be deep pockets behind a national broadcaster.

“This is positioned as a strategic transaction. Convergence is back; think ComCast-NBCU, not Time Warner Cable,” said a note to clients early Friday from BMO Nesbitt Burns analyst Tim Casey. He said Shaw can use CanWest’s programming to help differentiate its cable services and bolster its wireless offerings.

“This has the potential to be a good long-term deal for Shaw,” said Mr. Casey, noting that the union with CanWest could help Shaw win customers from regional telecom rival Telus.

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Streetwise Contributors

Andrew Willis

Andrew Willis joined The Globe and Mail in September of 1995. His career has included stints at a number of publications, including The Financial Post, The Financial Times of Canada, Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal, and MacLean's magazine. He also did freelance writing for Investment Executive magazine. He appears on television for BNN TV and CBC Newsworld.

Andrew has co-written a book, The Bre-X Fraud, with business journalist Douglas Goold.

Read Streetwise Tuesday through Friday in the pages of Report on Business.

 
Boyd Erman

Boyd Erman

Boyd Erman is a long-time business journalist who has worked at Dow Jones, Bloomberg, and the National Post before joining the Globe and Mail. Over the years, his areas of coverage have included economics, monetary policy, debt markets and corporate finance.

In addition, he is a regular commentator and guest host on Business News Network.

 

Steve Ladurantaye

Steve Ladurantaye wrote about technology companies in Ottawa before reporting for the Peterborough Examiner and Kingston Whig-Standard, where he won a National Newspaper Award for explanatory journalism. After joining the Globe and Mail in 2007, his work has regularly appeared in Report On Business and Globe Investor Magazine.

 
Globe and Mail reporter Tara Perkins

Tara Perkins

Tara Perkins has been a business reporter since 2004, following a brief stint as overnight editor of globeandmail.com. She has been writing for the Globe's business section since the spring of 2007, covering the banking sector during the course of the financial crisis. Prior to that, she worked for the Toronto Star. Tara has a Bachelor of Journalism from Ryerson University and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Guelph.

 
May 28/ 2009 - Jeff Gray is photographed for logo in Toronto, Ont. May 28/2009. Photo by Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail May 28/2009

Jeff Gray

Jeff Gray joined The Globe in 1998. After stints as a reporter in sports and as a copy editor in news, he helped relaunch globeandmail.com as a breaking news website in 2000. He moved to The Globe's Toronto city hall bureau in 2004, writing a weekly column about traffic and public transit. He has also worked for the world desk of the BBC's news website in London and for CBC News. He covers legal affairs for The Report on Business.

 
Jacquie McNish

Jacquie McNish

Jacquie McNish has been a business writer with The Globe and Mail since 1988. Prior to that she was a reporter with The Wall Street Journal.

During her time at The Globe and Mail, she has served as the paper's New York correspondent and won three National Newspaper Awards. She is the author of The Big Score: Robert Friedland and The Voisey's Bay Hustle and Wrong Way: The Fall of Conrad Black, for which she and co-author Sinclair Stewart won the National Business Book Award. She is a co-host of Market Morning on the Business News Network.