Might CanWest cede control to Americans?
The deal was rife with peril for CanWest, as it gave Goldman Sachs a buyout option that could force the Aspers to buy its shares at a certain price. It also called for a merger in 2011 between their cable partnership and CanWest’s broadcast operations, including Global Television and the E! network. The division of ownership between CanWest and Goldman Sachs will depend on the relative earnings of each part of the combined enterprise. If CanWest earnings continue to fall, Canadians will likely wind up as minority owners. “We could see CanWest losing its shirt over this,” warned media critic Ian Morrison of the lobby group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. “It actually put us in a situation where in the worst case scenario here, we think the Aspers could lose CanWest.” Despite flouting Canada’s foreign media ownership limits, which directly and indirectly (through a holding company) are supposed to add up to 46.7 per cent, the deal was quickly rubber-stamped by an Asper-friendly Conserv
