BREAKING Bob Cole, veteran CBC broadcaster and former voice of 'Hockey Night in Canada,' dead at 90
Bob Cole, legendary CBC broadcaster and former voice of Hockey Night in Canada, has died. He was 90.
Edward Rogers is out as board chair of Rogers Communications Inc., a move that comes as the latest development in a boardroom drama that has prompted the departure of a senior executive and the launch of an executive oversight committee.
In a statement Thursday afternoon, the company said John A. MacDonald will take over as chairman of the Rogers board of directors.
"This has been a challenging time for the Corporation and I want to reaffirm on behalf of the majority of the Board our support for and total confidence in the management team and CEO of Rogers Communications," said MacDonald in the statement.
Edward Rogers, who has served on the Rogers board since 2012, will remain on the board as a company director, the statement said.
Rogers Communications has been embroiled in an executive power struggle which developed after Edward Rogers tried to put former chief financial officer Tony Staffieri into the role of CEO and replace other members of the leadership team, according to media reports. Staffieri left the company effective Sept. 29, with Paulina Molnar named interim CFO.
Thursday, the board announced it has formed an executive oversight committee "to establish clear protocols for interactions between the chair and members of management" and said it would undertake a comprehensive corporate governance review.
"The board believes that these initiatives will further strengthen the company's corporate governance practices," it says in the management discussion and analysis document released along with the company's third-quarter financial results.
Joe Natale, president and chief executive of Rogers, publicly addressed the feud for the first time during the telecom company's quarterly earnings call Thursday morning.
His comments overshadowed the results, which analysts generally characterized as positive, and come as Rogers works to complete its purchase of Shaw Communications Inc.
Natale said he continues to have "strong unequivocal support" from the family-controlled firm's board of directors.
The statement comes after media reports describing an attempted ousting of Natale by board chair Edward Rogers. The attempt was blocked by other members of the board, including Rogers' sisters and mother, multiple reports say.
"I feel supported and rest assured that the entire executive team is focused on two things," Natale said during the conference call with analysts. "One, running the business to keep driving performance, and two, landing the Shaw transaction and the synergies and integration efforts that stand behind it."
Rogers reported a profit of $490 million, down from $512 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue held steady for the quarter ended Sept. 30.
The cable TV and wireless company said the profit amounted to 94 cents per diluted share, down from $1.01 per diluted share a year ago.
On an adjusted basis, Rogers says it earned $1.03 per diluted share, down from an adjusted profit of $1.08 per diluted share a year ago. Analysts on average had expected an adjusted profit of $1.02 per share, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.
A TD Securities Inc. client note called the results positive, saying the increase in new wireless subscribers and low churn was a "huge beat."
Rogers added 175,000 postpaid wireless subscribers, the highest third-quarter increase in 13 years. It also posted the lowest-ever third-quarter postpaid churn, which refers to the number of customers leaving.
"While messy boardroom and family discussions continue to play out in the media, the (third-quarter) results from Rogers show meaningful signs of improvement on many key metrics," the TD Securities note said.
"Service revenue growth also exceeded our above consensus expectations, and we note that the two-year growth ... improved meaningfully."
Rogers revenue for the quarter totalled $3.67 billion, identical to the same quarter last year, as higher service revenue in its wireless and cable businesses were offset by lower media and wireless equipment revenue.
The Shaw deal was announced earlier this year in a transaction valued at about $26 billion, including the assumption of $6 billion in debt. The acquisition is awaiting regulatory approval.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2021.
Bob Cole, legendary CBC broadcaster and former voice of Hockey Night in Canada, has died. He was 90.
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.