Outside Date of Proposed Rogers-Shaw Merger Delayed Again to End of March

By Adriano Marchese

The outside date of the proposed Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. merger and the sale of Shaw Communications-owned Freedom Mobile to Quebecor Inc. has been pushed back to the end of March.

The Canadian telecom companies, as well as the Shaw Family Living Trust, said in a joint release on Friday that they chose to extend the outside date for the transactions to March 29.

An outside date is an agreed-upon date after which any of the parties can terminate the agreement without penalty if a closure hasn't yet taken place.

The companies had first agreed to extend the outside date for the transactions to Feb. 17 while they waited for approval from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, a Canadian government agency, to transfer spectrum licenses from Shaw Communications to Videotron Ltd., the wholly owned Quebecor subsidiary buying Freedom Mobile.

On Jan. 24, the Federal Court of Appeal in Canada dismissed a challenge by Canada's Competition Bureau to the pending $15-billion Rogers-Shaw Communications merger.

Write to Adriano Marchese at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

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