Yahoo Finance BCE's Bell Media Acquires OUTFRONT's Canada-Based Business
BCE Inc’s BCE subsidiary Bell Media recently announced the closure of a deal to buy OUTFRONT Media Inc.’s OUT Canada-based business for C$410 million in cash, with adjustments to the purchase price as necessary.
New York-based OUT is a renowned player in the out-of-home advertising landscape. Using billboard and transit displays, the company provides advertising structures and sites to diverse industries across the 25 largest markets in the United States and 150 markets in the United States and Canada.
The sale of its Canada-based business is anticipated to provide additional financial flexibility to OUTFRONT Media by deleveraging its balance sheet. The initiative will not only allow it to decrease its financial leverage but also to concentrate exclusively on its operations within the United States, added OUT.
For Bell Media, this acquisition is likely to further reinforce its position in the out-of-home sector. With an expanded national portfolio encompassing digital and traditional out-of-home assets, it aims to deliver better outcomes for its advertising partners, added Bell Media.
Bell Media, a subsidiary of BCE, is in charge of managing the most popular media brands, including CTV, RDS, Crave, Discovery and Animal Planet. Apart from this, it boasts substantial investment in Canadian content creation, such as local television, radio news, sports and entertainment programming and other original TV and film productions. It frequently partners with advertisers to facilitate connections between brands and consumers through its cutting-edge advertising technology products and various other modes of communication.
In the last reported quarter, Bell Media generated revenues of C$725 million, declining 7.1% year over year. The downtick was primarily attributable to lower subscriber revenues.
Overall, BCE’s top line contracted 0.7% year over year to C$6,011 million ($4,458.9 million) due to softness across the Product and Service segment. Revenues missed the consensus mark by 0.21%. BCE reports its net sales under two segments – Bell CTS (Bell Wireless+ Bell Wireline) and Bell Media.
BCE currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Shares of the company have lost 26.5% in the past year compared with the sub-industry’s decline of 12.6%.
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