2002

• Tuesday Feb 19, 2002
  Sprint Canada parent Call-Net posts $1.4B loss with Fonorola writedown TORONTO (CP) - A $1.1-billion writedown of the 1998 acquisition of Fonorola resulted in an annual loss of $1.4 billion for Call-Net Enterprises Inc., parent of Sprint Canada.
  With the writedown, announced in October, Call-Net (TSE:CN, CN.B) lost $15.49 a share, compared with a loss of $451.8 million or $5 a share in 2000, the company reported Tuesday. In the past three years, the telecommunications company has lost more than $2.2 billion. Revenue fell to $928.4 million in 2001 from $1.25 billion in 2000, with a decline of $312.8 million in long-distance revenue - to $624.5 million - accounting for almost all of the drop.
  Call-Net's net loss for the fourth quarter was $82.4 million or 91 cents a share, compared to a loss before unusual items of $73.1 million or 81 cents per share a year earlier.
  Fourth-quarter revenue was $215.1 million, down from $301.4 million a year earlier.
  "2001 was a successful year in which we made significant progress toward our primary operational and regulatory objectives," chief executive Bill Linton said in a release. "We improved our (pretax earnings) before unusual items by over $100 million."
  On the regulatory front, he said, "we obtained relief in local access costs in April, which allowed us to relaunch our local service offering in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. In November, we received further relief on the one time amount we pay to switch over a customer to our local service."
  Linton said the company anticipates "substantial relief" from regulators in its attempt to cut the cost of getting access to Bell Canada networks.
  Call-Net attributed its lower income to significantly lower long-distance revenue per minute and the shedding of unprofitable long-distance arrangements.
  A decline in data revenue was partly offset by a $6.8-million increase in local services revenue as Call-Net relaunched those services last April.
• Monday 29 June 1998 Taking on the big operators 3 young Montrealers Salvatore Orfeo,(25, Groupe Telecom SLS Inc.'s self-described "president/janitor),Lucy Orfeo and her brother Salvatore. are running their own long-distance company, and thriving by ANDY RIGA [lookout fONOROLA DTN]
  
  
• Monday, June 29, 1998 Call-Net merger sets new tone Fonorola deal allows it to tackle new markets, may set off wave of strategic moves by rivals By Mark Evans and Lawrence Surtees The Globe and Mail With Call-Net Enterprises Inc. winning 95.3-per-cent shareholder support for its $1.8-billion takeover of Fonorola Inc. , the competitive landscape of Canada's $16-billion telephone market assumes a new dynamic. The acquisition not only strengthens Call-Net in the Canadian long-distance market, but it gives the company the added clout to assault new markets -- including the international long-distance one this fall
  
  
• Let's Talk about it
• Saturday 27 June 1998 Call-Net gets Fonorola $1.97-billion takeover creates Canada's No. 2 long-distance provider by ANDY RIGA
• Thursday, June 18, 1998 Sweetens offer by $7 a share, but observers say it may not be enough to deter bidding war By Lawrence Surtees Call-Net Enterprises Inc. sweetened its unsolicited bid for Fonorola Inc. yesterday to $67 a share or $1.78-billion in an attempt to pre-empt rival prospective bidders. But the $7-a-share increase may not be enough to win over investors betting that a bidding war will erupt for the long-distance telephone company within the next 10 days.
• Wednesday, May 20, 1998 By Lawrence Surtees Call-Net Enterprises Inc. has extended the deadline of its unsolicited $1.65-billion takeover bid for Fonorola Inc. , giving shareholders of that Montreal-based long-distance company until midnight on May 29 to tender their shares
• Wednesday, May 13, 1998 BCE selling U.K. telecom stake Worth $2.2-billion at current prices, the move will enable debt-free expansion in Canada
• Wednesday 13 May 1998 $2 billion for BCE's coffers Firm will sell stake in British telecom and up interests in CGI and Telesat DON MACDONALD
• fONOROLA
  

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You must see the Art night and Europe night 3 July 1998

Please see The Paragon Portfolio created by Larry Davis and David T. Nicholson
which is up 327.26% or 26% per year [Mar 25 close] in seven years.

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Let's Talk about it

• Wednesday, May 13, 1998 Don't nationalize Microsoft
  By Terence Corcoran PROBABLY the clearest indicator that the war on Microsoft is being waged by a band of second-raters and protectionists can be found in the words of Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems. While claiming to be a free-market libertarian, Mr. McNealy heads one of a group of corporations that is vociferously backing the U.S. government's campaign against Microsoft and its chairman, Bill Gates. Asked what the U.S. government should do about Microsoft, Mr. McNealy once told an interviewer the following: "Shut down some of the bullshit the government is spending money on and use it to buy all the Microsoft stock. Then put all their intellectual property in the public domain. Free Windows for Everyone! If we did that, we could forget all this legal stuff and just bronze Gates, turn him into a statue and stick him in front of the [U.S.] Commerce Department."
• What's next for Call-Net? fONOROLAheld its annual meeting last week and rejected Call-Net's $1.65-billion takeover bid. Call-Net meets Wednesday Apr 14th.
• fONOROLA News center
• Saturday 9 May 1998 Moses on the mountain Jan Peeters showed fONOROLA shareholders his grand vision. Will they follow him or sell out to Call-Net's $60-a-share offer? by ANDY RIGA ... Who is Jan Peeters?
• Says offer 'inadequate,' compromises U.S. expansion plans Thursday, May 7, 1998
• Thursday 7 May 1998 Don't accept bid: fONOROLA board Shareholders asked to consider long-distance provider's 'huge potential' ANDY RIGA
• Friday 24 April 1998 fONOROLA deal irks Call-Net Call-Net chairman Juri Koor says the sale of a prize fibreoptics line to Bell Canada by Fonorola affects the value of the company it is trying to acquire. JAN RAVENSBERGEN
• Friday 24 April 1998 Fonorola deal irks Call-Net Call-Net chairman Juri Koor says the sale of a prize fibreoptics line to Bell Canada by fONOROLA affects the value of the company it is trying to acquire. JAN RAVENSBERGEN
  
  

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• Internet Chat Rooms Becoming a Popular Forum for Business [DTN good and bad]
• The Globe and Mail, Tuesday May 5th p. B-1 [Finance Minister says foreign banks, technology won't fill competition void left by bank mega-mergers]
• Corporate ethics a minefield, even for ethicists JAY BRYAN
• Time to scrap foreign content cap altogether Friday, May 1, 1998 By Andrew Willis PAUL Martin is getting an earful from fund managers whOWN the Finance Minister to raise the 20-per-cent cap on foreign holdings in Canadian registered retirement savings plans and pension funds.
• Thursday 23 April 1998 Bell starts new network fONOROLAdeal is step to a high-speed telecommunications infrastructure JAN RAVENSBERGEN
Sunday 19 April 1998 Brainpower is the key
• Saturday 11 April 1998 - Peggy Curran - McGill's top students star in N.Y. Law At $80,000 U.S., starting salaries in New York are "unmatchable," said Robin Geller, assistant dean of McGill's law faculty, and responsible for admissions, placement and alumni. Montreal firms offer beginners $40,000 to $45,000 a year, while wages at the top Toronto practices start at about $60,000.
• Wednesday 8 April 1998 - Henry Aubin - Montreal's decline the only issue? ,... 43 per cent vs. 40 per cent, on whether the drive for sovereignty was having a negative or neutral/positive effect on Quebecers' jobs. [and the war never happend!]
• Tuesday 7 Apr - Jay Bryan - How much higher can the Dow index go?
• Saturday 21 March 1998 Jay Bryan - Think high-tech jobs lead way? Think again "We could always manage to mess it up," acknowledges Earl Sweet of the BofM, but with inflation low and investment in improved business technologies high, he believes the likeliest scenario is that Canada's expansion will remain vigorous over the full five years covered by his study, producing more than one million new jobs and cutting unemployment to about 7.5 per cent by 2000.