Quebecor to intervene in antitrust review of proposed Rogers, Shaw deal

OTTAWA -Quebecor Inc, through its unit Videotron, will intervene in the antitrust review of Rogers Communications Inc’s C$20 billion ($15.5 billion) purchase of Shaw Communications Inc, according to a notice posted on Friday on the website of Canada’s competition tribunal.

Last month, Rogers and Shaw agreed a deal with Quebecor to sell Shaw’s Freedom Mobile unit to the Montreal-based company, in a bid to allay competition concerns about their merger.

The Commissioner of Competition has blocked the deal, saying it would hamper competition in a country which has some of the highest telecom rates in the world.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Divya Rajagopal in Toronto; Editing by Chris Reese)