Struggling wireless company Mobilicity is seeking court approval for a $465-million takeover offer from Rogers.
Documents filed before a hearing today in Toronto say that Rogers would buy the smaller wireless carrier as a going concern and take on Mobilicity’s obligations to customers, employees, dealers and trade creditors.
A court-appointed monitor says the deal is supported by most of Mobilicity’s secured debt holders.
Rogers Communications had declined to comment on a Globe and Mail report that it had been selected over a competing bid from Telus, which has tried on two other occasions to acquire Mobilicity.
The federal government had blocked Telus over concerns that one of Canada’s three large national carriers would acquire wireless spectrum that had been set aside for newer companies, including Mobilicity.
Mobilicity is in five urban markets _ Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver _ but has not made inroads against the industry main players _ Telus, Rogers and BCE’s Bell, which together have about 90 per cent of the Canada’s wireless subscribers.
A sworn statement by William Aziz, who has been overseeing Mobilicity’s restructuring since April 2013, said it’s his under standing “that Industry Canada no longer has the same concerns it once did about ‘undue spectrum concentration’ among certain wireless carriers in Canada.”
Aziz also says in an affadavit filed with the court that the directors of Mobilicity’s holding company negotiated with competing bidders for about two weeks before deciding on Tuesday to accept the Rogers offer.
Disclosure: Rogers owns Marketing and MarketingMag.ca
