In interviews, Darren Entwistle has been waving the flag of Canadian nationalism and national security to help sell his plan to keep the whole shooting match of a merged Bell and TELUS entity. I find it interesting that other suitors, made up primarily of capital from Canadian and government employee pension plans are being characterized as “foreigners”.
In a call last Thursday with industry analysts, Darren referred to the high proportion of northbound connectivity that is controlled by foreign carriers, the number of countries with national scale incumbents, the fear of Canada’s national security assets falling under control of foreign investment or foreign carriers. He raised the threat of AT&T; and Verizon controlling Canadian telecom.
But at the end of the day, those aren’t reasons for TELUS to acquire Bell. Shareholders, Bell and TELUS alike, expect the deal to be good for them – in fact, they expect it to be the best deal for them. If it happens to be good for Canada too, that is serendipity, not a reason to do the transaction.
There is an interesting take on the issues from Derek DeCloet in the weekend’s Globe and Mail.
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