BCE: What did YOU do?

[smartcdn]

Read this:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/cbusiness_us_bce

Now vote!

[dash riprock]

Read this:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/cbusiness_us_bce

Now vote!

how about, " was really tempted but procrastinted long enough to save a whack of cash"

sign me up for that one

should have procratinated longer on citi........holds knife to neck

[Thalo]

Wanted to buy but never had the spare cash and thought buying in the low $30s for a supposedly "guaranteed" privatization deal at $42 seemed to good to be true.

[WHO]

Yeah, to be more specific, I had shares of BCE, once the deal was announced but BEFORE the market collapse. And I'm still holding them. But I refrained from buying more when the temptation was very high, because it just didn't feel right anymore. SO, limited my losses, and the investments I made instead of buying more BCE have been doing much better.

[William W]

The board of directors should re-instate dividend immediately plus the a special dividend payment for the quarters where they suspended it for this deal to happen. I just want to get the 5% dividend on the shares I owned. :mad:

[big_canuck]

Looked into completing a long straddle option strategy when it was in the low 30's. Options were expensive at the time (Dec expiry) and to make it profitable, price had to hit $42 (profit would have been very minimal) or under $25 (if I recall correctly). Didn't proceed as the profit was too minimal if they went ahead with the LBO and the bottom strike seemed unreachable by December (personally, at the time, I thought they would ask for a 1-2 month extension on closing - not an outright cancellation of the deal).

[pitz]

I wrote in another forum that the whole LBO scheme with BCE amounted to the BCE board selling a call option on the company, with a $42.75 strike price, and then forgetting to collect the option premium up-front, in cash.

Relatives of mine have lost significant chunks, following the advice of their broker to buy BCE stock, but I am sure that members of the OTPP are breathing a sigh of relief that such a horrible deal (for the buyers) isn't going through.

People all around the table should be fired. OTPP executives, the BCE board, BCE's law firm, etc. I don't think that this whole deal could have possibly been bungled any more than it already had been.

[grant]

Relatives of mine have lost significant chunks, following the advice of their broker to buy BCE stock, ...
The market was telling these people there was significant risk to the deal failing. Too bad for them that they bet on the losing side of that wager. I imagine the FAs told them "this is a sure thing! easy money!"

[pitz]

grant, well if a person got in at 36, and is now sitting at 26 -- that's not inconsistent with the rest of the TSX, and its drop. That's even slight outperformance.

I just hope that, for the sake of BCE's shareholders, that they were able to recover some of their (extreme) expenses from the bidders, for this fiasco. And I hope that anyone who was able to profit through inside information is prosecuted to the full extent of the law for securities fraud.

[stmi]

And I hope that anyone who was able to profit through inside information is prosecuted to the full extent of the law for securities fraud.

Yes, they will end up like this guy:

"John Felderhof — the only person to face legal charges in the Bre-X Minerals gold scandal of a decade ago — has been acquitted of all of the insider trading and other securities charges he faced."

"Felderhof sold $84 million worth of Bre-X stock in 1996, just before the company's supposedly rich gold project in Busang, Indonesia, was exposed as a fraud."

"Judge Peter Hryn ruled that Felderhof "reasonably believed Busang was a legitimate gold find."

"Bre-X stock tanked, costing thousands of investors in the once high-flying company as much as $6 billion."

[McPaul]

so is it safe to buy now at $19 or is it likely this stock falls lower?

[pitz]

so is it safe to buy now at $19 or is it likely this stock falls lower?

I'm not going to give stock picks, but do you really want to own a company that bungled a deal like this? A company that laid off tons of workers suddenly due to 'restructuring' a few months back (was the headcount bloated to begin with, or are these layoffs really unnecessary?)?

Part of picking a stock is assessing the credibility of management and of the Board. I think anyone looking to buy BCE should think long and hard about this issue.

[snika]

I bought 200 shares at 24.11$. Maybe the deal will go through at a lower price ?? (in the 30's)? I figured it was worth the risk...

[Thalo]

I think of the big 4 telecom companies in Canada Bell is the last one I would like to own.

[grant]

I bought 200 shares at 24.11$. Maybe the deal will go through at a lower price ?? (in the 30's)? I figured it was worth the risk...
There will not be a new deal struck any time soon.

As soon as the credit crunch hit, banks did NOT want to complete this deal. They were planning to sell the debt at a tidy profit, but instead, would end up stuck holding the debt.

[liorsyncro]

I would never own Bell stock. Ten or twenty years I would see why their stock was attractive but these days it's a terribly run company. They're struggling with market share in virtually all consumer segments and their customer service is just laughable. This company is a useless dinosaur which is run by a bunch of monkeys who are high on a bad batch of grass - time to break it up and bring fresh and modern-day competition to the telecom industry in Canada.

[Thalo]

I would never own Bell stock. Ten or twenty years I would see why their stock was attractive but these days it's a terribly run company. They're struggling with market share in virtually all consumer segments and their customer service is just laughable. This company is a useless dinosaur which is run by a bunch of monkeys who are high on a bad batch of grass - time to break it up and bring fresh and modern-day competition to the telecom industry in Canada.

My thoughts exactly. This is why the privatization would have benefitted them, because the public markets don't like low growth dinosaurs.