Shaw Communications announced its deal to buy WIND Mobile, a telecom network operator in Canada, for approximately $1.6 billion.
The strategy of Shaw Communications is to expand its existing Wi-Fi coverage and add WIND Mobile’s spectrum to focus on wireless business.
Brad Shaw, chief executive officer of Shaw Communications, said: “This transaction represents a transformational step in the history of Shaw. The growth will be accelerated by combining Shaw’s existing customer relationships, trusted brand and wireline and WiFi infrastructure with WIND’s impressive asset base, including its existing spectrum position and mobile network.”
WIND has approximately 940,000 subscribers across Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta with 50MHz of spectrum in each of these regions.
WIND Mobile has achieved 47 percent increase in its subscriber base over the past two years. WIND is expected to generate $485 million in revenue and $65 million in EBITDA in 2015.
WIND continues to reinvest in its network and service offering, including a scheduled upgrade to 4G LTE services by 2017.
WIND’s CEO Alek Krstajic and his team will remain with the company and will continue to drive the wireless opportunity.
Shaw GO WiFi has over 75,000 hotspots. “By acquiring WIND, we have immediate scale, spectrum, retail distribution and a network with a clear path to LTE that complements our existing fiber and WiFi infrastructure,” Shaw said.
Recently, WIND Mobile announced improvements in its Greater Vancouver area network for enhancing the coverage and spectrum capacity across Canada.
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