In hindsight, Mr. Israel Asper might have been over confident of Canwest’s ability to handle the overwhelming amount of debt. CBC News “Shaw’s Canwest purchase: an end to the suffering” (emphasis added),
The Feb. 12 announcement that Shaw Communications Corp. will buy a controlling stake in Canwest Global Communications could signal the end of years of debt and downsizing for the beleaguered Winnipeg-based media firm.
Calgary-based Shaw would own at least 20 per cent of Canwest’s equity and 80 per cent of its voting stock under the terms of the deal.
Canwest’s newspapers, which include the National Post, the Montreal Gazette and the Ottawa Citizen and other papers in Ontario, the Prairies and the West, are not included in the transaction. They are in a separate unit, which is also under creditor protection.
[…] Critics say Canwest’s troubles began with the monster $3.2 billion purchase of media giant Hollinger International’s 13 daily newspapers, 126 community papers, the National Post and the canada.com website in 2000.
At the time, Israel Asper, chairman of Canwest Global, is quoted as saying: “We don’t intend to be one of the corpses lying beside the information highway.”
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