Telus shocks, Teachers can only smile

Figure this out (via Reuters):

TORONTO, June 26 -Telus Corp. (T:TSX) said on Tuesday it will not submit an offer to acquire rival telecommunications firm BCE Inc. (BCE:TSX).

Telus, which revealed it was in talks to acquire BCE last Thursday, said the “inadequacies of BCE’s bid process did not make it possible for TELUS to submit an offer.”

Whatever could have happened in the bid process that meant Telus’s dream of global dominance wasn’t worth the hassle? Where are the law firms and the guys at Goldman to prevent these things from happening? You’d have hoped that $100 million in advisory fees would get the shareholders a good process.

First Onex and the Caisse pull out because Telus was allowed into the process (or some other fuzzy reason), and a few hours later Telus bails.

Hard to validate, but one might wonder if there isn’t a message being sent to BCE’s special committee.

Or, as others have mused, perhaps Telus just wanted a look under the covers. Slam, bam, bye, bye.

Regardless, BCE’s shareholders are left scratching their heads.

And the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund’s offer is starting to look like the winner. Perhaps there’s some justice in all of this, since they got the ball rolling.

MRM
(disclosure – I own BCE but plan to trade into Rogers A’s instead; that last bit is required by Seeking Alpha of all of their contributors)