TekSavvy puts itself up for sale amid industry turmoil
TekSavvy puts itself up for sale amid industry turmoil
It has hired bankers and launched a formal sale process, says sources familiar with the discussions
You're viewing a single thread.
TekSavvy is the last remaining large internet wholesale provider, as others have been snapped up by bigger rivals in what independent ISPs describe as a challenging regulatory environment.
Roughly half a dozen independent ISPs have been sold since February of 2022. According to BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Casey, BCE Inc. paid roughly $139-million for Ebox, an internet, telephone and television service provider based in Longueuil, Que., and approximately $335-million for Ottawa-based Distributel last year.
Telus, meanwhile, acquired Altima Telecom and Start.ca for undisclosed amounts, while Quebecor Inc. snapped up VMedia, an independent internet and television provider serving customers primarily in Toronto, in July of 2022. The price of the VMedia acquisition was also not disclosed.
Montreal-based Cogeco Inc., meanwhile, paid $100-million for Oxio, a Montreal-based provider with 48,000 internet subscribers, Mr. Casey wrote in a research note..
🤦🤦♀️🤦🏼♂️
Sent an email to my MP. This is a competition issue similar to the Shaw sale to Rogers and the feds should get involved. You should do the same.
It's astonishing how few independent telecom providers there are now
Now we know how these competitors were able to offer cheaper deals than TekSavvy for the last couple of years. They were all acquired and their costs are now dramatically lower as a result of not having to pay wholesale costs.
The CRTC has been doing a fine job of driving small ISPs out of business and keeping the market closed to all but the biggest established players.
After lowering rates in 2019, which immediately sparked lower internet prices across the country, the CRTC then astonishingly reversed its own decision and raised them back up again in 2021. And 8 years after saying they’d grant wholesale access to state-of-the-art fibre technology, it’s still not available to independent providers. Which means smaller ISPs simply can’t compete against those faster connections of the incumbents.
Ian Scott was a Telus exec after all.
Minister Champagne always talks about how he wants ample competition, but we've yet to see any actual effective effort.
This might be a catalyst to a something being done. I sure hope so at least.
Because none are independent. Reselling someone else's network isn't really a great position to be in.
Ugh, this is so discouraging. I'm a big fan of Internet Lightspeed as an independent ISP (Vancouver area). I haven't seen news of a buy-out for them yet, and I hope I never do.