Canadian telecommunications company Bell, through its parent company BCE, and rival telco Rogers Communications agreed a deal to jointly acquire a controlling stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the owner of several Canadian sports teams and broadcasters. MLSE owns pay-television broadcasters NBA TV Canada, Gol TV Canada and Leafs TV, which broadcasts coverage of the MLSE-owned Toronto Maple Leafs NHL ice hockey team.
Bell and Rogers agreed a deal worth C$1.32bn (€970m/$1.29bn) to buy a 75-per-cent stake in MLSE through a 50-50 joint venture from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. The deal, under which Bell will own 28 per cent, its pension fund hold 9.5 per cent and Rogers own 37.5 per cent of MLSE, is expected to be completed in mid-2012. As part of the deal, Kilmer Sports, owned by MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum, will increase his shareholding in MLSE from 20 to 25 per cent.
Tanenbaum will stay on as MLSE chairman following the takeover. Rogers already owns the Toronto Blue Jays MLB baseball club and the Sportsnet pay-television channel, while Bell operates TSN, a rival cable sports channel that already shows Maple Leafs and Raptors games. George Cope, the chief executive of BCE, said the two companies would share coverage of Leafs and Raptors games and insisted competition “on the broadcast side just got a whole lot more intense.”
MLSE also owns the Toronto Raptors NBA basketball team and the Toronto FC Major League Soccer team as well as Air Canada Center, the home arena for the Leafs and Raptors. The deal has to be ratified by the Canadian Competition Bureau, Canada’s competition watchdog, as well as the NHL and NBA.