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For the sake of comparison, the US$31-billion CP Rail acquisition of Kansas City Southern received federal and regulatory approval in less than a year. And bear in mind, this involved three countries, not one! The only outstanding piece is approval from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board expected this year. In the meantime, the companies operate as a merged entity through a trust structure created to hold the shares until the approval is granted.
The reality is that Shaw — for better or worse — did not bid on the last round of 5G spectrum licences, meaning that Freedom Mobile will be rendered a very weak option for consumers in the absence of this deal. Videotron does have those 5G licences and in a world where connectivity is critical to economic growth and boosting productivity — a fact discovered very quickly in March 2020 — a weak service provider is the least desirable outcome.
While other competitors in Canada’s telecom space see this deal through the lens of market share, which is entirely reasonable, Calgarians see the delay as a lack of understanding for what this means for Calgary.
I don’t care what Yedlin has to say.