Thread: Shaw Communications stock on wild ride after report, denial of Rogers offer

TORONTO (CP) - Shaw Communications Inc. shares (TSX:SJR.NV.B) went for a wild ride Tuesday, briefly approaching a four-year high, after a report that Rogers Communications Inc. founder Ted Rogers had made an offer for the western cable TV company.

Shares of Calgary-based Shaw closed at $29, up 17 cents or 0.59 per cent, from the previous day. But earlier Tuesday, the stock hit an intraday high of $31.73 in early trading Tuesday, up nearly seven per cent from Monday's close in its biggest one-day jump in more than a year.

The stock gave up its early gains. Both Shaw Communications and Rogers Communications are publicly traded companies, but they're controlled by their respective founding families, who own the bulk of the outstanding multiple-vote shares.

Rogers and Shaw own Canada's first-and second-largest cable firms, respectively, and offer high-speed Internet and, increasingly, Internet phone service in their respective markets.

Rogers has most of its cable operations in large urban areas in Ontario, with a presence in parts of Atlantic Canada. The bulk of Shaw's cable holdings are in Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba, making it Western Canada's largest cable company.

Ted Rogers, who founded the company that bears his name, in the 1960s while still a university student and has grown it into a diversified business through a variety of acquisitions and internal growth.

He has said publicly, in media interviews and conference calls with analysts, that he'd be interested in acquiring other cable companies if the opportunity arose but also noted that the families that own them didn't appear interested in selling.

Both Shaw Communications and Rogers Communications are currently highly profitable and considered to be in good position to take market share in their respective local phone markets from the incumbent phone companies.

The Post story, citing unidentified sources, said that Rogers offered $45 per share - an 82 per cent premium to Shaw's stock price at the time - in an $9.3-billion all-stock deal.

"The purported meeting and offer described in the story did not occur," Rogers Communications said in a brief statement Tuesday. The Post story also quoted a Rogers spokeswoman who said "there is no truth to the speculation."

Shaw, meanwhile, said separately that "the Shaw family has advised the company that it is not in discussions with any party to sell its controlling interest in the company. The purported meeting and offer ... did not occur."

Rogers non-voting B shares closed Tuesday at $49.41, down 50 cents or one per cent from the previous close, although they had been up slightly before the denial was issued. Those shares have a 52-week range of $32.30 to $52.07.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20060.../rogers_shaw_4