Rogers is buying FIDO!!!

[xkon]

Rogers Wireless bids $1.4B for Microcell
Last Updated Mon, 20 Sep 2004 08:41:03 EDT
TORONTO - Rogers Wireless is buying Microcell Telecommunications, the operator of the Fido cellphone network, in a friendly $1.4 billion cash takeover, the companies said Monday.

Rogers Wireless said it will pay $35 apiece for Microcell's Class A restricted voting shares and Class B non-voting shares. It will also offer to purchase Microcell's 2005 warrants for $15.79 and 2008 warrants for $15.01.

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approvals and Microcell shareholder acceptance, is expected to close by the end of the year.

The board of directors of Microcell have already agreed to the Rogers offer and is recommending shareholders accept the deal.

"This transaction will position Rogers to better compete against incumbent telco wireless operators in Canada," said Ted Rogers, the president and CEO of Rogers Communications, the parent company of Rogers Wireless.

"It also ensures a healthy, competitive marketplace and all of the associated benefits for wireless customers across Canada," he said.

Last week, Rogers Wireless signalled its interest in acquiring Microcell when it filed a request for an advance ruling with the Canadian Competition Bureau related to a possible offer to acquire its competitor.

Telus Corp., the country's second largest phone company, has already launched a $1.1-billion takeover bid for Microcell, which has rejected the offer.



http://www.cbc.ca/story/business/national/2004/09/20/rogers_040920.html

[Shaolin]

WOOOOOOO....

this should be interesting.. it didn't make sense for Telus to acquire Microcell in the first place.

[Gonthro]

please NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO......


fido WAS a decent company.




PLEASE ANY SHAREHOLDERS DECLINE THE OFFER :nut:

[tulit]

crap. i have to agree. this would suck (from a users perspective).
whats to happen to all the current fido users?

[kiwi]

Oh man, here we go again... :rolleyes:
Why can't people just leave Fido alone?

[statick]

:werd: fidos a god company, and they offer good plans

[xkon]

Originally posted by statick
:werd: fidos a god company, and they offer good plans

and they lose money doing it... it has to end sooner or later!

too bad, i was looking forward to ctiyFido here!

[fcuk_it]

what would happen to the current fido plans.. i just changed my plan to city fido.... would that change if the take does happen?

[xkon]

i imagine rogers would honor them for the length of the term, then make you change it!

[Gonthro]

and if you dont have a term then you're SOL

[benyl]

Haha, at least with TELUS, you know that your coverage would be good.

All Fido users are going to start dropping calls... haha

[rage2]

It makes perfect sense for Telus to buy Fido, seeing as Telus does not have a GSM network at all. Rogers has a GSM network but suffers from horrible reception. Fido's aquisition would help them improve their network for all Rogers GSM customers.

[saiyajin]

^ ya exactly an i think this is good cuz now u got nice phones an the wicked plans of fido...if rogers isnt plannin to change everything i think this is good that its happening :thumbsup:

[Gonthro]

Originally posted by saiyajin
^ ya exactly an i think this is good cuz now u got nice phones an the wicked plans of fido...if rogers isnt plannin to change everything i think this is good that its happening :thumbsup:

rogers will NOT keep fido's plans, the only reasont hey are buying fido is so they can control the gsm network 100%

therefore controling the prices.

[sputnik]

Originally posted by Gonthro


rogers will NOT keep fido's plans, the only reasont hey are buying fido is so they can control the gsm network 100%

therefore controling the prices.

Thats pretty weak. The cellular market prices are close regardless of whether you are on Telus, Bell, Fido or Rogers (with the exception of the new Fido "unlimited" plan).

Most people are paying somewhere around $40 for a standard plan with unlimited evenings and weekends. Rogers wont be able to gouge people just because they have 100% control of the GSM market. The average Joe doesnt care enough to bounce from one provider to another. They just want to pay a competitive rate and have a phone that works when they need it to work.

I dont really understand everyones griping about Rogers reception. I have had a Rogers phone ever since they were Cantel (mid 90s) and always have decent reception. Perhaps if you didnt always take the "free" phone you might have a different experience.

Anyhow. Good for Rogers for making the bid. Hope everything works out.

[xkon]

Originally posted by sputnik


Thats pretty weak. The cellular market prices are close regardless of whether you are on Telus, Bell, Fido or Rogers (with the exception of the new Fido "unlimited" plan).

Most people are paying somewhere around $40 for a standard plan with unlimited evenings and weekends. Rogers wont be able to gouge people just because they have 100% control of the GSM market. The average Joe doesnt care enough to bounce from one provider to another. They just want to pay a competitive rate and have a phone that works when they need it to work.

I dont really understand everyones griping about Rogers reception. I have had a Rogers phone ever since they were Cantel (mid 90s) and always have decent reception. Perhaps if you didnt always take the "free" phone you might have a different experience.

Anyhow. Good for Rogers for making the bid. Hope everything works out.

:werd: i agree 100%.... i switched to telus early this year and was disappointed after hearing how solid their reception was and getting "all our circuits are busy" half the time... ive been on rogers since '95 and never had any major issues, mckenzie used to suck but 850 fixed that for me on their GSM network. As far as I know as well fido's infrastructure isnt compatible with rogers anyhow, they will have to upgrade it all for it to work properly with their network... time will tell i guess, i would assume some towers will come down!

[roopi]

Before anyone starts making assumptions on what will happen maybe you should listen to the conference call today that was done by Rogers. It will answer alot of questions.

Fido will still be around once/if Rogers does buy them.

[xkon]

the prepaid end right? I havent listened to it yet, but i got the impression they would keep the fido brand for prepaid and use the rogers name for post paid?

[RiCE-DaDDy]

Uh didnt Rogers make a bid for At&t?

[Gonthro]

Originally posted by RiCE-DaDDy
Uh didnt Rogers make a bid for At&t?

uhhh rogers ownz at&t, they have for a while... hence why it used to be "rogers at&t" and is not "rogers"

[xkon]

Originally posted by Gonthro


uhhh rogers ownz at&t, they have for a while... hence why it used to be "rogers at&t" and is not "rogers"

no no, AT&T Wireless in the US owned 33% of Rogers wireless, hence the Rogers ATT... ATT Wireless was sold to Cingular, and one of the conditions on that sale was the sale of their shares of Rogers Wireless. Rogers bought them back, so now Rogers has no foreign ownership. AT&T in canada never had anything to do with this, they were rebranded under the name AllStream.

[benyl]

Rogers is basically buying their way to being the largest cell phone provider in Canada.

[Xtrema]

This is of course is pending on CRTC approval right? So some condition may be Fido owners get to keep their plan for a while longer.

[rage2]

Originally posted by sputnik
I dont really understand everyones griping about Rogers reception. I have had a Rogers phone ever since they were Cantel (mid 90s) and always have decent reception. Perhaps if you didnt always take the "free" phone you might have a different experience.
I was with Rogers from the Cantel AT&T days as well. I never used a free phone... always used the top motorolas ranging from $1200 to $2000. Elites, Startac VIPs, Vader VIPs, you name it. The reception was horrible, 50% of the incoming calls goes straight to voicemail, dropped calls like crazy. This was on both their analog and TDMA network.

I was on the phone day and night, averaging $700/month in local calls back in the day, and that's with free evenings and weekends, so ya, I had a lot of experience in terms of where there were blackout spots, where calls would drop, etc. When I switched to Telus, I called on my Rogers phone to disconnect, and my call dropped 3 times trying to disconnect my service because the call took around 40 mins.

Their GSM network is better than the old analog and TDMA network, but it's still pretty horrible. To this day, there are nights where for hours, Rogers cell phones can only call each other, they can't call land lines, telus cells, fido cells, etc. I was never on the GSM network, this from experience in calling people on Rogers GSM.

For the average joe who only uses minimal minutes, Rogers works fine. For the guys that live on the phone because of work, it's unusable. The heavy users can easily tell the difference when they switch to Telus ;).

[benyl]

Well, given that TELUS got CRTC approval for the extra spectrum, I would suspect that Rogers will get it easily. I am guessing that that since both are GSM, the spectrum is the same and thus CRTC wouldn't have anything to say.

I think Ted Rogers was saying it is a matter of changing the roaming switch for Fido users. The change would take less than an hour to do. Just to be safe, they said they would allocate a day to make the transition.

Fido will become Rogers in the blink of an eye. That is of course unless Bell sweetens the deal.

From what I have read, Bell would be a serious contender given that they could use the tax benifits of buying Fido immediately. TELUS would have to wait until 2006. I don't know how long Rogers would have to wait.

[zer0]

Originally posted by rage2

I was with Rogers from the Cantel AT&T days as well. I never used a free phone... always used the top motorolas ranging from $1200 to $2000. Elites, Startac VIPs, Vader VIPs, you name it. The reception was horrible, 50% of the incoming calls goes straight to voicemail, dropped calls like crazy. This was on both their analog and TDMA network.

I was on the phone day and night, averaging $700/month in local calls back in the day, and that's with free evenings and weekends, so ya, I had a lot of experience in terms of where there were blackout spots, where calls would drop, etc. When I switched to Telus, I called on my Rogers phone to disconnect, and my call dropped 3 times trying to disconnect my service because the call took around 40 mins.

Their GSM network is better than the old analog and TDMA network, but it's still pretty horrible. To this day, there are nights where for hours, Rogers cell phones can only call each other, they can't call land lines, telus cells, fido cells, etc. I was never on the GSM network, this from experience in calling people on Rogers GSM.

For the average joe who only uses minimal minutes, Rogers works fine. For the guys that live on the phone because of work, it's unusable. The heavy users can easily tell the difference when they switch to Telus ;).

you have to remember that theres different bands on the GSM network and only 850 is good.. and i'd say 90% of people on rogers don't have that band

[Akagi Redsuns]

Originally posted by zer0


you have to remember that theres different bands on the GSM network and only 850 is good.. and i'd say 90% of people on rogers don't have that band

In North America there is only 2 bands in operation, 850 and 1900. Fido uses 1900 and it's coverage is decent from the short time I had a Fido SIM in my phone with Field Test Mode enabled. The other 2 bands, 900 and 1800 are overseas.

If you are on Rogers and don't have a 850Mhz capable phone....I feel for ya! I used to have a V60g on 1900Mhz and it was brutal!

So much for getting a good retention plan from Rogers by threatening to switch to Fido lol.

[TomTom]

ok i heard this on the radio today too but just under a month ago there was talks on the news about Telus trying to have a hostile takeover on the same company, now rogers is too?

telus could just come back and say 1.5 or higher than 1.4 if they realize what this could do for rogers

[soupey]

Originally posted by rage2

I was with Rogers from the Cantel AT&T days as well. I never used a free phone... always used the top motorolas ranging from $1200 to $2000. Elites, Startac VIPs, Vader VIPs, you name it. The reception was horrible, 50% of the incoming calls goes straight to voicemail, dropped calls like crazy. This was on both their analog and TDMA network.

I was on the phone day and night, averaging $700/month in local calls back in the day, and that's with free evenings and weekends, so ya, I had a lot of experience in terms of where there were blackout spots, where calls would drop, etc. When I switched to Telus, I called on my Rogers phone to disconnect, and my call dropped 3 times trying to disconnect my service because the call took around 40 mins.

Their GSM network is better than the old analog and TDMA network, but it's still pretty horrible. To this day, there are nights where for hours, Rogers cell phones can only call each other, they can't call land lines, telus cells, fido cells, etc. I was never on the GSM network, this from experience in calling people on Rogers GSM.

For the average joe who only uses minimal minutes, Rogers works fine. For the guys that live on the phone because of work, it's unusable. The heavy users can easily tell the difference when they switch to Telus ;).


i duno about other rogers users, but i can't complain about the signal at all, ive used a SE t616 t68i, t300, and a nokia 7210...all of which had GREAT reception, the only area thats noticebly bad is up near edgemont by nose hill park, its like a deadzone there...

so i wudn't go all out and say that rogers sucks ass period, they reception is excellent from my experience...hell wit my t616 i get reception 75% of the time im on the highway from calgary to edmonton...its awesome....

anyways thats jus my opinion, i have no complaints about the service rogers gives...

[benyl]

Rogers takeover of Microcell imperils competition, consumer group fears

CP Wire – Similar stories appear in The Western Star(Corner Brook), The Calgary Herald, The Toronto Star, The Ottawa Citizen, The Ottawa Sun, The London Free Press, The Gazette (Montreal), The Toronto Star, Winnipeg Free Press
Tue 21 Sep 2004
Section: Business
Byline: BY ALLAN SWIFT

MONTREAL (CP) _ The growing multitude of cellphone users in Canada could face higher rates if Rogers Wireless Communications succeeds in buying Microcell Telecommunications, says a consumer group.

The $1.4-billion friendly takeover announced Monday _ topping a previous bid by TELUS Corp. _ would leave the country with three wireless providers, each one a unit of a large conglomerate.

However, an analyst believes the transaction could actually help competition, and noted that British-based Virgin Mobile will arrive in Canada next month to stir up the market.

Michael Janigan, executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, said Tuesday he is concerned that the only independent wireless provider is being swallowed by a bigger competitor.

``In our view it seems there is a very real likelihood that competition will be diminished as a result of a takeover by TELUS or Rogers,'' Janigan said.

``Microcell has been an innovator in the wireless environment and we don't see any good coming for consumers from either transaction.''

Janigan said there is a good chance rates would rise.

``We've seen where there is an effective duopoly now in broadband between the two local telephone companies that there's not much difference in the service price; both seem to follow each other in tandem.''

However analyst Iain Grant of SeaBoard Group believes competition will be enhanced.

Grant says wireless telephone penetration in Canada still lags about 50 per cent behind other developed countries, possibly because rates in Canada are too high.

With Rogers' network beefed up with lots of unused capacity provided by Microcell, ``I think Mr. (CEO Ted) Rogers is going to be empowered to get really innovative with pricing,'' Grant said.

``It gives him the flexibility he didn't have before.''

Grant also predicts the arrival of Virgin Mobile will introduce a new element of competition _ even against Virgin's joint venture partner, Bell Mobility.

``It's going to be a totally different personality in the marketplace, and it won't hesitate at all from going after Bell's base as well as Rogers and TELUS,'' Grant said.

``We're not going to have cozy triopoly here, we're going to have a relatively vibrant competitive market.''

Robert Kerton, dean of arts at the University of Waterloo, said federal regulators could best assure competition by allowing new _ and even foreign _ competitors.

``What you really want is open access to entry,'' Kerton said.

``To a certain extent our regulator is a mixed blessing; it can protect consumers and it can be a barrier to new types of competition, including innovations in technology.''

Kerton added that Microcell's 1.2 million clients would be better off with Rogers, since Rogers and Fido use the same platform, called GSM. Fido owners would be able to keep their handsets and use them in a much broader area of the country, instead of just the urban areas covered by Microcell.

Marc Choma of the Canadian Wireless Telecom Association noted that Canada has a wireless penetration rate of 46 per cent. Sweden and Japan, by comparison, have surpassed 100 per cent _ more than one mobile phone per person.

Choma said those countries introduced the technology earlier, and in addition Canada has an efficient wired telephone system.

Microcell shares (TSX:MT.A) were up nine cents at $35.19 on Tuesday, surpassing the $35 per share offered by Rogers Wireless (TSX:RCM.B).

[kiwi]

Great! Just great! :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

but at least it's not Telus that's buying Fido...

[Russo]

nooo :(((( i like FIDO as it is :(((

[benyl]

Rogers will have to do the dirty work: Was TELUS' offer for Microcell designed to spur consolidation?

National Post
Thu 23 Sep 2004
Page: FP8
Section: Financial Post: Technology
Byline: Mark Evans
Column: Commentary
Source: Financial Post

Now that Rogers Communications Inc. has appeared on the scene with a $1.4-billion takeover bid for Microcell Telecommunications Inc., you have to question if TELUS Corp. was ever serious about acquiring Canada's smallest national wireless carrier.

After considering the reasons why TELUS' interest in Microcell does not make much sense, its $29-a-share offer appears half-hearted. Investors seemed to agree as Microcell shares have regularly traded above TELUS' bid in the past three months.

For those who revel in conspiracy theories or corporate gamesmanship, there is a case to be made that TELUS only made its offer to put Microcell into play and/or flush out Rogers. With Rogers looking to buy Microcell, TELUS will get what it wants: consolidation within the maturing wireless industry; the elimination of an irritating rival; and, more importantly, no more debt on its slowly improving balance sheet.

Microcell has long been a thorn in the side of TELUS, Rogers and Bell. With aggressive pricing plans (particularly after it emerged from bankruptcy protection with little debt), Microcell has required its three rivals to offer attractive consumer plans to maintain and win market share. Microcell also provoked TELUS in Vancouver by launching the low-cost CityFido service aimed at residential users.

If Microcell is taken out of the equation, it will be positive news for all carriers. TELUS figures it is up for the job as consolidator but only if a deal makes sense financially. By offering $29-a-share, TELUS believes it will get Microcell at a sensible price -- allowing it to justify the cost to integrate Microcell's customers and operations, and $1.1-billion more of debt.

TELUS would also have to deal with issues such as phasing out Microcell's GSM wireless network (TELUS uses a different kind of technology) as well as selling off equipment and wireless spectrum -- presumably to Rogers, which uses the same technology and needs spectrum in Southern Ontario.

Then again, TELUS may have not been thinking about these issues at all. Instead, CEO Darren Entwistle, chief financial officer Bob Macfarlane and TELUS Wireless CEO George Cope may have hatched a plan to force Microcell into Rogers' hands.

Mr. Entwistle may have known all along that its "full and fair" bid had a little chance of being accepted by Microcell CEO Andre Tremblay or the company's board. The offer, however, would not be a waste of time if one of three scenarios materialized: no rival bid emerged and the bid was accepted; Microcell's management became distracted and lost some of it competitive zeal; or another suitor such as Rogers appeared.

For conspiracy theorists, TELUS' strategic worked perfectly. Rogers will have to do all the dirty work while TELUS and Bell enjoy more stable market conditions.

For TELUS, buying Microcell appears to make little sense. TELUS has enough on its plate, with a three-year labor dispute; service challenges in Western Canada; a struggling business operation in Ontario and Quebec; and debt that recently became investment grade again. While there is little doubt Mr. Entwistle is looking to make his mark, acquiring Microcell had the potential to be a reputation killer. So why did Rogers step up to the plate if it could have obtained Microcell's equipment and spectrum at a discount without taking on $1.4-billion of debt?

One explanation is Mr. Rogers' desire to be an "empire builder" and the value he places on spectrum.

While the full details of Rogers' bid have not been revealed, it will be interesting to determine why Rogers thinks Microcell is worth 21% more than TELUS does. Does Rogers think it can drive more synergies and cost efficiencies than TELUS? If so, where are the savings? This may well be a case of hubris where Mr. Rogers wasn't about to let TELUS become number one.

For those curious about the timing of Rogers' bid, the answer is that AT&T Wireless Inc. had the right to block acquisitions above a certain size that Rogers wanted to make.

When Rogers bought AT&T's 34% stake in Rogers Wireless for $1.77-billion earlier this month, that obstacle disappeared -- allowing Mr. Rogers to move on Microcell.

For Bell, the Rogers-Microcell marriage is intriguing because it could open a strategic window for its joint venture with Virgin Mobile, which is slated to start offering service later this year.

Like Microcell, Virgin Canada wants pre-paid customers, which tend to be teenagers or people with bad credit. If Microcell management becomes distracted with the marriage to Rogers, Virgin Canada could capitalize to establish a quick foothold. At the same time, you have to wonder whether Rogers wants to maintain Microcell's large pre-paid business given Rogers has been de-emphasizing the low-revenue business for the past year or so. It is entirely possible Rogers will focus on Microcell's lucrative post-paid customers, and let Virgin, Bell and TELUS battle for the pre-paid scraps.

In any event, Microcell's sale is good news for wireless carriers and probably bad news for consumers, who could see prices climb. When Ted Rogers proclaimed earlier this week that the Microcell deal is a "great day for the Canadian wireless industry", it is not hard to believe that Mr. Entwistle and BCE Inc. CEO Michael Sabia were probably popping bottles of celebratory champagne.

Illustration:
• Color Photo: Chris Bolin, National Post / TELUS chief executive Darren Entwistle may have known all along that the company's "full and fair" bid for Microcell had a little chance of being accepted. Was it a ploy to flush out Rogers?

[Altezza]

^^ That's one of the first things that ran thru my mind when this all started. People said I was crazy, LOL. Ahhh...life of corporate take-overs, LOL.

[xkon]

Originally posted by rage2

I was with Rogers from the Cantel AT&T days as well. I never used a free phone... always used the top motorolas ranging from $1200 to $2000. Elites, Startac VIPs, Vader VIPs, you name it. The reception was horrible, 50% of the incoming calls goes straight to voicemail, dropped calls like crazy. This was on both their analog and TDMA network.

I was on the phone day and night, averaging $700/month in local calls back in the day, and that's with free evenings and weekends, so ya, I had a lot of experience in terms of where there were blackout spots, where calls would drop, etc. When I switched to Telus, I called on my Rogers phone to disconnect, and my call dropped 3 times trying to disconnect my service because the call took around 40 mins.

Their GSM network is better than the old analog and TDMA network, but it's still pretty horrible. To this day, there are nights where for hours, Rogers cell phones can only call each other, they can't call land lines, telus cells, fido cells, etc. I was never on the GSM network, this from experience in calling people on Rogers GSM.

For the average joe who only uses minimal minutes, Rogers works fine. For the guys that live on the phone because of work, it's unusable. The heavy users can easily tell the difference when they switch to Telus ;).

i am a heavy user, i range between 2000-3000 minutes/month... last winter when i switched to telus i DID notice the difference! Network busies, horrible tinny audio, and lots of my incoming calls going straight to voicemail, and just getting the VM notification... I had it for 6 weeks and couldnt take anymore, I switched back...

Ive been on Rogers since analogue in the mid 90's, never had issues with it or TDMA, i think its really just a matter of who you talk to, we seem to have extremes for telus and rogers here! bottom line is, neither is perfect and never will be. The rest seems to be personal opinion.

[CKY]

well hopefully they'll start introducing better phones because the majority (by majority i mean like 99%) cell phone models avaliable here in calgary are shietty (style and age wise) but i guess this won't change unless one of these companies makes a push and starts introducing more new models or a wider choice of phone selections to attract more customers.