Nice little play on words here as Globe and Mail writer Steve Ladurantaye has his go at explaining what went wrong in Bell Media’s bid to buy TV, radio and billboard giant Astral Media Mr. Cope (left) is CEO of Bell and it seems his confidence about this deal was boundless. There were rumbles that maybe it was just a touch too self-serving and frankly humongous to be in the public interest. The head of the Competition Bureau Melanie Áiken (centre) said as much a couple of weeks ago. In the end, CRTC commissioner Jean-Pierre Blais (right) and his cohorts decided that Bell had just not made the case. They rejected the whole deal. You can decide whether you like that. One problem Bell has is that it’s not very well liked. Many see it was an indifferent steamroller in the marketplace. The company’s contention that it needed Astral to compete internationally came under close scrutiny. How did buying a Canadian company help Bell compete internationally? It was an obvious question. The CRTC couldn’t figure it out. The current telecoms bogeyman Netflix was dragged out as a threat to Bell. It must have seemed silly to the government appointed commissioners. Globe and Mail
