Subprime crisis and Alliance takeover

Y'know....

I've been wondering if this whole 'subprime crisis' that is affecting our markets was going to "touch" the Alliance Atlantis takeover by CanWest Global. Why? Because CanWest's aquisition of Alliance is happening because of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (which has really pioneered the use of "commercial paper"....commercial paper, of course being the type of debt at the centre of the "subprime crisis"). In short, it's a leveraged buyout....the kind of buyout that accelerates debt....and who's on the hook, ultimately???

Well....the citizens (read: taxpayers) are always on the hook for everything.

So - the CRTC is stalling the hearings for the CanWest (Goldman Sachs) takeover of Alliance Atlantis to look at some of the paperwork that was late in being 'processed'...

I wonder if they're trying to figure out just how much "junk" is underwriting the borrowed bucks in this leveraged buyout....

Read the Financial Post article here....

CRTC officials grill Astral over Standard Broadcasting price

Suggest deal worth more than $1.08-billion

GRANT ROBERTSON

MEDIA REPORTER

August 28, 2007

GATINEAU, QUE. -- Astral Media Inc. faced tough questions yesterday from federal broadcast regulators who suggested the broadcaster is low-balling the $1.08-billion purchase price of Standard Broadcasting Ltd. - a deal that will create the largest commercial radio company Canada has ever seen.

At hearings held yesterday to scrutinize the massive takeover, officials with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission indicated they believe the Standard transaction is worth more than Montreal-based Astral is letting on, and that certain items have been left out of the purchase price to keep a lid on regulatory payments.

Astral executives were questioned about the stock price used to value more than two million shares changing hands in the deal, which the CRTC argues is being understated.

Read the rest here

"We control all of the West. We're a powerful family."

Great long article in the Globe on Jim Shaw. Good to see that the broadcasters are doing so well. Now if only he'd share the wealth with the rest of the industry...

From the Globe:

Confessions of a cable guy The industry is chugging along, and the money is rolling in.

By: GRANT ROBERTSON

August 25, 2007

KELOWNA, B.C. -- The doorbell rings at Jim Shaw's summer home in the Okanagan Valley and the head of Shaw Communications Inc. answers wearing khaki shorts and no shoes.

It's an unusually hot day, even for this famous apple-growing region of B.C., where the chief executive officer of Canada's second-largest cable company has spent much of August.

"Don't worry," he says, padding through the lakeside house in Kelowna. "We're not too uptight around here."

Casual indeed. Moving swiftly into the kitchen, Mr. Shaw pushes a stack of papers - his work for the morning - to one side of the dinner table and offers up a chair.

Read the rest of the article here

Kenney for Heritage Minister?

At least with Bev Oda, nothing really happened (except for the steady drift into less funding), but if Jason Kenney gets the job of Minister of Heritage....he may actually do something, and that would be terrifying!