Canada

In the spacious quarters once occupied by CanWest scion Leonard Asper sits affable executive Paul Robertson, finally ready to begin his duties at the helm of Shaw Media, The Globe and Mail reported. It’s the final culmination of a process that started just over a year ago, when CanWest’s TV assets entered restructuring under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, unable to overcome a crushing debt load. On Wednesday, the broadcasting business emerged from creditor protection under new owners Shaw Communications.

Cable company Shaw Communications can proceed with its C$2 billion ($1.94 billion) purchase of the television assets of distressed media company Canwest Global, Canada's telecom and broadcaster regulator said on Friday, Reuters reported. "We are satisfied that this transaction will generate substantial benefits for the Canadian broadcasting system," Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said in a statement.

Bernard Callebaut's bid to keep his company has failed. The high-end chocolate business that bears his name went into receivership in August, with ATB Financial claiming Callebaut owed close to $4 million, CBC News reported. Receiver Deloitte and Touche recommended last week that the company's assets be sold to a numbered company backed by former Callebaut vice-president of operations Brian Beck and a dealer with three stores in Edmonton. Callebaut and his lawyers contested that bid Wednesday, but on Thursday a judge rejected Callebaut's attempt to buy the business back.

Nortel Networks Corp, the fallen Canadian telecom giant, said on Tuesday it is selling its sprawling Ottawa campus to the Canadian government for C$208 million ($202 million), Reuters reported. Nortel, once North America's biggest telecommunications equipment maker, said the sale is expected to close at the end of the year. The 370 acres of land and its 11 interconnected buildings had been a proud symbol of the company's dominance in its field and of Canada's technical prowess.

Nortel Networks Corp. Thursday postponed a hearing on the appointment of a mediator to help broker an end to disputes over the cash raised in the liquidation of its global telecommunications equipment business, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Lawyers for U.K. retirees whose pensions are in jeopardy due to Nortel's bankruptcy have petitioned to be part of the mediation, and the company is in talks with them, said James Bromley, attorney for Nortel. The Toronto company and its creditors want to summon Layn R.

Canada's Adanac Molybdenum Corp, which is under Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act protection, said it will seek court approval Monday for its credit restructuring plan, Reuters Africa reported. The company, which has got extension to CCAA protection until Oct. 29, intends to seek approval from the Supreme Court of British Columbia to increase its authorized share capital and consolidate its shares at a 150-to-1 ratio.

Bernard Callebaut has found an investor to make a bid for his chocolate company, which was placed in receivership in August, The Calgary Herald reported. His wife Francesca said they are "working with a company here in the city" and will put in a proposal Tuesday. Earlier in the week, Callebaut said he was seeking investors and if that option didn't work, he had developed a plan that would see him making chocolates under a new brand identity.

Nortel Networks Corp. and its creditors have tapped former federal judge Layn R. Phillips to help divide nearly $3.2 billion raised in a series of bankruptcy sales, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Phillips is being called in to serve as a mediator as the former telecommunications giant completes the dismantling of its global equipment and service business, according to documents filed Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Mediation sessions have been scheduled to start Nov. 11 and run through Nov. 16, court documents say. Creditors in Canada, the U.S.

Bernard Callebaut is making a final bid to save his company which went into receivership in early August, The Calgary Herald reported. In a new release issued today, Callebaut said: "These have been very trying times, and strengthened by the love of my family and the support from Calgarians, I am sourcing investors who share my vision for quality." He said he was still considering offers from investors willing to join him in the bid process prior to the Wednesday deadline. Callebaut opened its first in Calgary in 1983.

A bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved the $65 million sale of Nortel Networks Corp.'s multiservice switch business to Swedish telecom equipment vendor L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co., Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Judge Kevin Gross of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., signed off on the sale less than a week after Ericsson won an auction for the business. Ericsson beat out PSP Holding LLC, a special-purpose entity funded by Marlin Equity Partners and Canada's Samnite Technologies, which kicked off the Sept. 24 auction with a $39 million bid.