TORONTO — Anthony Lacavera says Globalive is interested in buying Shaw Communications Inc.’s Freedom Mobile wireless assets.
Lacavera founded Wind Mobile and built it into the country’s fourth-largest wireless business before selling it in 2016 to Shaw, which rebranded it Freedom Mobile.
Rogers Communications Inc. has signed an agreement to buy Shaw, however the deal faces reviews by three different federal regulators including the Competition Bureau and the CRTC as well as spectrum regulator Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED).
The deal faces opposition in part due to concerns about what it would mean for competition in the wireless industry. Industry watchers expect that Shaw will have to sell some of its assets as a condition of any approval of the deal.
Federal Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne has said that the wholesale transfer of Shaw’s wireless licences to Rogers is fundamentally incompatible with the government’s policies for spectrum and mobile service competition.
Lacavera, Globalive’s chairman, says the company is well-capitalized and has a successful track record of bringing competition to the Canadian marketplace.
“We brought prices down for consumers with Wind Mobile and we will do it again,” he says.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 14, 2022.
Companies in this story: (TSX:SJR.B, TSX:RCI.B)
