MONTREAL – Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc. announced today their boards of directors “have unanimously rejected the revised unsolicited, non-binding proposal from Altice USA, Inc. of New York and Rogers Communications Inc. of Toronto.”
The companies’ statement says the boards met early on Tuesday to consider the purchase offer and Louis Audet, who is the executive chair of both boards and the representative of the controlling shareholder Audet family, formally confirmed “the publicly stated unanimous position of the Audet family as set out in its press release dated October 18, 2020.
“Following separate deliberations of the independent board members supported by independent legal counsel, taking into account the stated position of the Audet family, the boards rejected the revised unsolicited, non-binding proposal and will not engage with Altice and Rogers,” reads today’s release.
“The Corporations will not comment any further at this time.”
In response to the Cogeco boards’ release, the pursuers said the door is still open, for a month. “We believe this is a compelling offer that would reward all shareholders and should the Cogeco boards and Audet family wish to meaningfully engage with subordinate shareholders about the offer, it remains in effect until November 18th, 2020,” said a joint Altice/Rogers statement.
