John Seaton

BCE Inc.'s LBO: Board Should Take C$36, Forget about Break Fee

Hi Watcher 001
You hid your comments behind a code name so you don't have to be accountable for your opinions--coward, note that I sign my name.
You seem to mix two complaints--excess salaries and the desire to protect what teachers have in our pension.
On the first point you and your various governments paid these salaries over the years--probably because some enlightened citizens thought that buying the best talent to teach the next generation was important. Remember that in a democracy the majority makes the decisions.
On the second point we as a group are sharp enough to know a bad deal when we see it. Judging by the losses some have incurred on BCE some others were not so sharp. If they had done due diligence and looked beyond the ratios etc they would have seen what main street sees. Please google BELL SUCKS, BELL PROBLEMS or BELL KEVIN CRULL and see for yourself the hate that is out there for BCE. It will take years if ever to regain the trust of customers.
It is true that the management of Teachers has done an excellent job over the years gaining returns that you have probably not obtained yourself. Now we have a new pension team investment leader and it is important to perhaps reduce the aggressiveness of the fund in the short term. Now is not the time to gamble on a dog like Bell. I hope you don't have anly BCE shares as they are even lower now. We are not that stupid to pay $42 a share for shares that keep tanking. If our team does not get the message and change strategy for the times then they must be replaced. We don't want to lose what we have. The fund is still underfunded so we will likely in the future have to share what we get so everyone will get something.
Wait until the our retail tenants start failing and vacate the retail space we own. You might get the last laugh.
Happy Holidays watcher 001
John Seaton

On Dec 03 01:02 PM Watcher001 wrote:

> So the financial community, and by extension retail investors such
> as myself, are greedy at the expense of the poor teachers? Is this
> what you're saying Mr. Teacher?
>
> If it is, then here's my reply to you, John:
>
> You truly are a hypocrite! How many times in the last twenty years
> have the teachers used strikes etc. to extort ever increasing amounts
> of money from the taxpayers? I'll suppose you'll call it fair compensation.
> I don't agree.
>
> Here's another question Mr. Teacher. Why do you think you deserve
> a gold plated pension plan indexed to inflation and guaranteed by
> the Province of Ontario while the rest of us, who pay your bills,
> get no where near this! Some of us have nothing at all.
>
> You're pissed off? What about us you narcissist?
>
> As a closing observation, I find it truly strange that few teachers
> complained when their much vaunted OTPP grew ever fatter by the day
> until it eventually reached $108 Billion in assets. Now things have
> turned sour and you want out. Not much surprise here.

BCE Inc.'s LBO: Board Should Take C$36, Forget about Break Fee

Mark--you just don't get it. You and other Bay Streeters are playing with the teachers pension money. Where are your ethics? Is this how you treat people who cared for you and taught you when you were young?
We are pissed off about this. I am encouraging all teachers to join togather to put a stop to this by replacing the management and board
at the Teachers Pension Plan organization. This is the team that got us into this BCE deal and set it up so we will have a huge penalty to
pay to get out of it. We need a new team that is more conservative in management style for the current investment situation. This BCE deal was built on egos gone wild not on reason. Teachers contact your
Federation and let them know your thoughts about a meeting to take control of your money..

BCE Deal Delay Hurts

I have commented on this deal on this site three times before from the point of pensioners depending on the solvency ot their Teachers Pension Plan. I have commented that BCE is a dog and now it must becoming apparent to even the nieve trusting teachers. The pretigious auditing firm KPMG questions whether Bell will be viable and whether it can service all this debt and make up their own pension deficit..
The president of Teachers Pension Plan, Jim Leech, does not seem to be able to influence Bell's policy to correct Bell's abuse of customers
BCE (Bell) has a huge deficit in its own pension fund. Will the Teachers Pension Plan end up having to pay out of their funds to top up Bell's pension deficit down the road if the deal goes through and BCE (Bell) merges into the teachers plan.
Google "Bell sucks," "Bell problems" and "Bell Kevin Crull" to sample what Canadians say about Bell. It will take years if ever to turn this perception around.
Ontario Teachers need to clear out the current pension fund management and replace them with more conservative managers for desperate times. No more gambling on highly leaveraged deals with the teachers pension money. Teachers rise up and protect yourselves. Call your Federation

BCE and the Rule of Law

Matt Stewart demonstrates the wrong headed unresearched wishful thinking that got us all into the current market meltdown. He bases his thinking on wall street hyperbole and ignores main street reality. Remember Mr. Stewart holds BCE shares and is hoping to gain great rewards from this holding. I recommend Margaret Atwood's new book "Payback" to Mr. Stewart so he can review the likely outcome of greed having run wild.
I have written several times on this sight warning that Bell has so pissed off main street that it will take years until they can regain their market share. They have not improved. I have heard "I hate Bell" so many times that I as a family dependant on a "Teachers" pension fear what this buyout will do to our pension fund. Mr. Stewart says that the teachers fund will take the first hit if anything goes wrong so his BCE investment is OK. Just google (Bell problems) etc and see what angry Bell customers are writing. Jim Leech is on a power trip to do the biggest buyout ever playing with our money. He will get away with it if the lenders don't collapse because the teachers who own this fund are too NAIVE and TRUSTING to understand that they are being taken by buying Bell stock for $42 per share when it can be purchased on the open market for $26 per share.
I note that Mr. Stewart levels an attack against Dianne Francis who is one of the few who sees that the emperor has no clothes. Too bad that some are onto this game and spoiling Mr. Stewart's stock play.
Let me illustrate how incompetent Bell management is. They still have not dealt with a $400 balance from last summer that I refuse to pay (I have already paid $600) because their phone cards are no good in the US. These cards generate huge long distance bills. For $400 they exposed themselves to my scrutiny and research into possible problems with this deal. Wise Goliaths should be wary of Davids with sling shots.

Desjadins Analyst: BCE Maintains Guidance; Reiterates 'Hold' Rating

The Emperor has no clothes. BCE is a dog and these out of touch analysts like Dejardin's Joseph Mac Kay don't know what they are talking about. Bell has mistreated Canadians to such a degree that the common mantra is "I hate Bell." It will take many years to overcome this hate of Bell image and gain the trust of Canadians if this is even possible.
I became active in trying to stop this purchase for two reasons. Firstly my wife is a retired teacher on pension. She instinctively feels, that knowing Bell, this is a bad deal with too much debt that may jeprodize her pension plan. Secondly the treatment we recived from Kevin Krull, president of residental services, concerning a disputed long distance bill, alerted us to the inept management of this team. For example, increasing the text message rate at a sensitive time when Canadians were becoming doubtful about this deal was not the best move. It almost seemed that Bell management was showing Jim Leech of the Teachers Pension Fund who would be in control.
My case was as follows. We made phone calls from the US with our Bell calling card. We paid monthly for Bell's "24/7 First Rate Service' which guaranteed ten cents per minute for calls within Canada and twenty cents for calls to the US and thirty cents using the card away from home. We received a bill for one thousand dollars. We expected two hundred dollars at the most. We were not warned with notices on our monthly statement etc that Bell cards are no good in the US. The calls go through rogue US carriers at extreme rates.
Bell blamed us. We paid six hundred dollars We refuse to pay the balance. For four hundred dollars Bell brought all this on themselves. I found out they have a whole department to handle this problem. I was not alone as they led me to believe. I have heard of many such cases as I warn other seniors of this problem. Wait until teachers visiting the US receive large bills.
While sitting around a camp fire with seniors last week I heard of Don's plight. He kept having monthly funds deducted from his bank for a satellite service he does not have. He had to change his bank account to escape Bell's satelite service. Some other seniors had long distance billing horror stories similarto mine.
Investigate for yourselves and decide. Remember we have not heard from the owners of the Teachers Pension Fund--the retired teachers and the current working teachers now contributing. they may want to pay the cancellation loss fee and pass on this deal.