- With Rogers Communications (RCI +1.6%) confirming that it's buying Mobilicity -- for C$440M (about $355M) -- it's also paying C$100M to wrap a deal to buy airwaves from Shaw Communications (SJR -0.9%) and says it will sell some spectrum to Wind Mobile, an unsurprising move to seal regulator OKs.
- The deals mean new airwaves for Rogers in population centers of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. "We're basically adding multiple lanes on our wireless highway in three key markets overnight," says CEO Guy Laurence.
- Rogers had previously paid $250M to acquire the purchase option for Shaw's spectrum.
- The Wind deal may encourage regulators who may see it as the most viable competition for Rogers, BCE (BCE -0.4%) and Telus (TU +0.2%).
- Rogers is offsetting some of the Mobilicity purchase price by tax losses of around C$175M.