Since I’m now a former Canwest employee, I guess I don’t have to include that disclaimer anymore.
Some tidbits of news since Canwest’s newspaper arm filed for bankruptcy protection in early January:
- Financial Post columnist Diane Francis has come out as one of the backers of this Grafstein-Heard-Wajsman consortium bidding for the Post, Citizen and Gazette. But Canwest’s creditors still want to sell the division off as a unit.
- Despite two filings for creditor protection, Canwest is still making money by the hundreds of millions.
- A vague story from Canadian Press today about Canwest “rejigging” its auction of the newspaper and online assets. Apparently the original plan wasn’t “robust” enough. UPDATE: The bid deadline has been extended to March 5, and a court-appointed monitor (not the banks) will decide which bids go through.
The Financial Post, which is owned by Canwest and may be part of a sale (but which isn’t under creditor protection) has a fair picture of what parties might be involved in this asset auction, with pros and cons for each. For most companies, the bottom line seems to be “not interested.”