Corus, Shaw and TD Securities declined to comment on the matter to realscreen‘s sister magazine Playback, with a Corus spokesperson noting that the company “does not comment on speculation.”
Shaw is pursuing the sale as a means of freeing up capital to invest in its Freedom Mobile wireless network, the report says, with value of the shares estimated at CAD$540 million. TD Securities is reportedly handling the effort on behalf of Shaw, shopping the stake to a number of private equity funds and investors that do not currently own national media businesses.
The news of a potential sale comes as the number of media players globally continues to shrink. Yesterday, a U.S. federal judge approved AT&T’s proposed US$85-billion takeover of Time Warner, which operates CNN, Warner Bros. and HBO, among others. The deal is one of many so-called media mega-mergers on the horizon, including Disney’s bid for Fox Television Network and 20th Century Fox and Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Sky in the U.K.
In Canada, however, it is likely that regulators would scrutinize any deal that increased the size of a company already in the content business. The Competition Bureau recently shut down Corus Entertainment’s proposed sale of French-language channels Historia and Séries+ to Bell Media. And the CRTC has shut down similar M&A activity before, most notably when Bell sought to acquire the assets of Astral in 2012.
In January 2016, Corus announced it would acquire all of Shaw Media’s assets from Shaw Communications in a deal worth CAD$2.65 billion. The transaction saw Corus take ownership of brands then owned by Shaw Media, including specialty channels like Food Network Canada, HGTV Canada, Slice and History.
In its Q1 2018 financial report in January, Corus posted year-over-year revenues of CAD$415.5 million across its TV business, down 2% from $425.6 million at the same period a year earlier. TV profits dipped 9% to $168.6 million in the quarter, from $184.4 million in Q1 of 2017.
READ MUCH MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS HERE AT RealScreen.com
And the reason for the fall from a $21 stock to a $6 stock, is?
SHAW is smart. It no longer wants to be associated with FAKE NEWS and Trump bashers like Jody Vance, Simi VACCINE Sara, John TURNCOAT McComb and Gord NEW WORLD ORDER MacDonald…….
With the recent news of Stingray acquiring Newcap, I get the impression Stingray has much more in mind than just this latest radio purchase, and no doubt will take the opportunity to bid on the “cream of the crop” of whats on the block of Corus radio stations. Corus owns 39 radio stations across Canada, perhaps Stingray is planning to build a new Canadian radio station empire?
https://www.corusent.com/about/our-brands/radio/
What ones would Stingray want, and who’s interested in buying the rest?
Interesting days ahead in Canadian radio. Never a dull moment.
According to the initial report, Corus is looking to sell to a hedge fund and not a current media conglomerate. Time will tell.
Is the Global TV net part of Corus?
Rasterman – It is.
Corus Entertainment today announced a rather gloomy earnings future and cut its dividend.
http://business.financialpost.com/telecom/media/corus-entertainment-reports-third-quarter-loss-on-impairment-charge