Friday, August 14, 2015

Woodbridge buys BCE’s 15% stake in The Globe and Mail

The Woodbridge Co. Ltd. has taken full ownership of The Globe and Mail, acquiring the 15 per cent stake in the news organization from BCE Inc. that it did not previously own, the Globe and Mail reports.
Woodbridge, the private holding company of the Thomson family, and the communications giant announced on Friday they had reached a deal. Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed.
“We are pleased to complete the acquisition of all of the shares of Canada’s preeminent national news organization and reconfirm our commitment to the critical role that The Globe and Mail plays in Canada,” said David Binet, president and chief executive officer of Woodbridge.
Through Woodbridge, the Thomson family has been The Globe’s majority owner, holding an 85-per-cent stake in the paper acquired after BCE agreed to take full ownership of broadcast company CTV Inc. for $1.3-billion in late 2010. The newspaper and broadcasting properties had been jointly owned under CTVGlobemedia – a large private media company forged a decade earlier by BCE and the Thomson family under the prior name Bell Globemedia.
Until Friday, BCE had continued to own 15 per cent of The Globe, and occupied a seat on the newspaper’s board of directors.
The Globe will keep its governance structure, though its board will no longer include a representative from BCE. In a memo to staff, Phillip Crawley, The Globe’s publisher, said the sale will not affect day-to-day operations.

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