CanWest goes bankrupt

Canwest Global Communications Inc. announced Tuesday that some of its business units will file for creditor protection.

Canwest has come to an agreement with its creditors that will see some of its business units enter bankruptcy protection. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)
The media conglomerate has come to an agreement with a committee representing its lenders over a restructuring plan for the debt-laden company.

Under the agreement, Global Television, MovieTime, DejaView, Fox Sports World and the company that operates the National Post newspaper are among the units that will voluntarily file for creditor protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.

The plan "represents the best alternative for the long-term interests of the [company], its approximately 1,700 employees, suppliers, customers and other stakeholders," Canwest said in a release.

After the restructuring, Canwest creditors would receive shares of the restructured media company. Canwest's current shareholders would own just 2.3 per cent of the shares of the new Canwest.

The company's operations will continue uninterrupted during the recapitalization process, the company said.

Comments

Submitted by remind on October 6, 2009 - 9:43am.

wow, what will this mean to its biased reporting, if anything?

Submitted by Uncle John on October 6, 2009 - 1:18pm.

I think no other TV station would be working for me to watch the execrable Global news. I would rather watch something from Punkydoodle Corners, Nowhere on my satellite.

Submitted by Ken Burch on October 6, 2009 - 2:50pm.

Any chance that this will result in the former Canwest papers getting NON-right wing ownership?

Submitted by janfromthebruce on October 6, 2009 - 2:55pm.

Ken, I do hope so - wishin, and hopin.... everybody sing and/or hum along

Submitted by remind on October 6, 2009 - 3:01pm.

I guess that would depend on who the investors are exactly, eh?

Seeing as how they get shares for the investments now.

Perhaps some business minded people, wil understand part of the issue with Canwest's poor business plan, and resulting lack of success, is that they had an agenda, that was not about making money.

Submitted by Pogo on October 6, 2009 - 3:20pm.

More employee ownership situations?

Submitted by remind on October 6, 2009 - 4:00pm.

It is not apparent from the article that this would be so, unless they invested in Canwest besides being an employee.

The creditors and investers now own 97%

Submitted by Frustrated Mess on October 6, 2009 - 4:20pm.

And the backdoor partial bailout of the Nazinal Post:

Canada's CBC, National Post in content-sharing deal

Quote:

The CBC, Canada's public broadcaster, and the National Post daily newspaper have agreed to share content across their media platforms, the companies said on Thursday.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp and the Post, which is owned by Canwest Global Communications, did not disclose the terms of the deal.

Submitted by Buddy Kat on October 6, 2009 - 4:29pm.

Well I hope the investors of global realize that being a conservative propaganda tool and excuse maker and defender of anything and everything Isreal ,,,war crimes and all isn't constructive or money making nowadays . Instead they can embrace something they can have a real market share in IE: Real left oriented promotion and defending with the goal of taking over the CBC and possibly replacing it.

It's all on a platter for them. They aren't gonna make it any other way. ctv has the crumbling monopoly of being the number one conservative propaganda network and even has a senator to prove it. The first thing they have to do is get rid of the zionist link..it's a new world out there for a new tv network. Maybe someone should email Chavez..see if he is intrested in a nationwide media network. Good foriegn investment ...perhaps al jezzara ......

Submitted by contrarianna on October 6, 2009 - 4:37pm.

Frustrated Mess wrote:

And the backdoor partial bailout of the Nazinal Post:

Canada's CBC, National Post in content-sharing deal

Quote:

From the same story:

"The agreement brings together two news organizations that have not always seen eye to eye. In 2003 and 2004, for example, the Post ran a regular feature called "CBC Watch" in which it accused the CBC of left-wing bias."

Given the direction of the CBC in recent years, guess which political wing the Axis of Truth will fly with.

Submitted by martin dufresne on October 6, 2009 - 5:10pm.

Arrrggghhh... What a shock this must be for Friends of the CBC!... Where do we send flowers?

I can see a few programming changes coming down the tube "Little Mosque on Fire"... "The National, starring Don Cherry"...

Submitted by M. Spector on October 6, 2009 - 8:50pm.

The thread title is wrong. CanWest has sought and obtained protection from bankruptcy. If their plan is accepted and the creditors are paid off, they will avoid bankruptcy and live to carry on business.

Corporations that go bankrupt are finished and can never be revived.

Submitted by Tommy_Paine on October 6, 2009 - 8:59pm.

I think the best we can hope for is the selling off of different units, to other pro business, right wing hands.

Submitted by autoworker on October 6, 2009 - 9:25pm.

The C.B.C. accepting content from CanWest? Talk about a Trojan Horse. Give those ececs. a breathalyser! Randomly, of course.

Submitted by Timebandit on October 6, 2009 - 9:40pm.

They're trading financial and sports stories. The rest of the news bureaus will remain seperate.

Submitted by autoworker on October 6, 2009 - 9:58pm.

phew!

Submitted by martin dufresne on October 6, 2009 - 10:04pm.

"They're trading financial and sports stories."

Oh... like we WANT public TV's financial news coverage to be negotiated with the Hard Right... I wonder how much of my tax dollars will now go directly to Canwest, laundered through the immaculate CBC.

Submitted by Timebandit on October 6, 2009 - 10:14pm.

Probably no more than is coming in via the filthy capitalists.

Submitted by Frustrated Mess on October 6, 2009 - 10:27pm.

Yes, they get sports, and the Canadian public gets the economy mediated through the lenses of the adherents of a failed ideology sporting a legacy of ruin and piracy. Best of all, the FP gets ... wait for it ... PUBLIC DOLLARS!!! The very same public dollars they are religiously opposed to, for anyone else. Particularly working people. And I'll bet you the reason the details have not been made public is because the profitable CBC sports coverage will be heavily subsidizing the money losing FP's money porn.

Submitted by St. Paul's Prog... on October 7, 2009 - 3:16pm.

Good riddance.

Submitted by SCB4 on October 7, 2009 - 4:35pm.

I think all of the TV stations and most of the Canwest-held newspapers will carry in some form, hopefully a more progressive form. I doubt the National Post will survive though - the bankrupty proceedings will reveal it for the money pit it is. As noted in the above post: good riddance.

Submitted by Doug on October 9, 2009 - 6:08pm.

I wouldn't be at all surprised. Toronto really can't sustain four daily newspapers, and when one goes it's most likely to be the Post.

Submitted by M. Spector on October 19, 2009 - 11:35pm.

Canwest quietly gets another break

Quote:

In between meetings this week about Canwest's bankruptcy protection and how it will affect its various employee groups, imagine my surprise when I found out that none other than Canwest has been granted yet another TV license.

You couldn't make this stuff up. Check out the CRTC notice of October 14 [25], giving Canwest a license for a new Reality TV channel (I kid you not). What could the CRTC commissioners have been thinking as they considered the application and actually approved it -- just one week after the company announced it's seeking protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA)? Hasn't the CRTC learned anything from approving Canwest's grand plans?

Submitted by M. Spector on October 21, 2009 - 11:32am.

Seems as if the gleeful reaction (above) to Canwest's protection from bankruptcy was a trifle misplaced!

Submitted by NorthReport on December 2, 2009 - 7:05pm.

We all know who is gonna win this one. CanWest-Goldman battle erupts

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/canwest-goldman-battle-erupts/article1348821/