Noah Zivitz

Managing Editor, BNN Bloomberg

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Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. have extended the timeline to close their $20-billion takeover arrangement.

The two companies announced Wednesday morning that the outside date for getting the deal done has been extended to Dec. 31 of this year. The deadline was previously set for July 31.

The telecom and cable giants have been trying since March of last year to secure all the necessary approvals to proceed with their transaction. However, the Competition Bureau is seeking to block the deal, which also still requires the green light from Innovation, Science, and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, who has said he won’t allow the wholesale transfer of Shaw’s wireless assets to Rogers.

In their update Wednesday morning, Rogers and Shaw said they’re still negotiating final details for the sale of Shaw’s Freedom Mobile wireless business to Quebecor Inc. for $2.85 billion.  

Separately, Rogers announced second-quarter adjusted profit and revenue Wednesday that were in line with expectations. It also reaffirmed its financial forecasts for this year.

Rogers said service revenue in its wireless division rose 11 per cent to $1.8 billion in the quarter, in part because of higher roaming activity as travel activity picked up. That division also benefitted from the addition of 122,000 net postpaid subscribers, doubling user growth from a year earlier.

The company estimated that it will book $150 million in costs when it reports third-quarter results for customer credits stemming from the network outage earlier this month.

Beyond the wireless and cable operations, Rogers said revenue in its media division surged 21 per cent year-over-year to $659 million in the second quarter, thanks to gains from the Toronto Blue Jays baseball franchise as the team resumed a normal home schedule at the Rogers Centre after having to uproot itself in the previous two seasons because of the pandemic.