On August 15, 2014, the Competition Bureau (the Bureau) announced that Bragg
Communications Inc. (Eastlink) and Bruce Telecom had terminated an
announced merger, which would have resulted in the acquisition of
Bruce Telecom (the incumbent telecommunications provider for a
large portion of Bruce County, Ontario) by Eastlink (a
privately-held company that owns and operates cable systems across
Canada), for a purchase price of C$26.5 million.
Eastlink's decision to terminate followed a review by the
Bureau's Mergers Branch, pursuant to which the Bureau concluded
that the acquisition would likely have resulted in a substantial
lessening or prevention of competition in the towns of Port Elgin
and Paisley, Ontario, where Eastlink and Bruce Telecom are the only
current providers of wireline telecommunications services. Although
the merger did not meet the thresholds for notification to the
Bureau, it was brought to the Bureau's attention as a result of
several consumer
