October has been a busy month for Rogers, as family drama and power struggles within the telecom company’s board of directors continue to make for some strange headlines.
Here’s a timeline to help you keep track of what’s happened so far this month on Succession: Canadian Telecom Edition.
September 29th: Rogers issues a press release announcing that chief financial officer Tony Staffieri is leaving the company. No reason is given for Staffieri’s departure.
October 8th: Alexandra Posadzki at The Globe and Mail publishes an exclusive scoop that Staffieri was, in fact, booted from Rogers, after he and company chairperson Edward Rogers — son of the late Ted Rogers, who founded the company — tried to oust CEO Joe Natale.
The plan failed — more on that in a minute — and Staffieri, who was supposed to slide into the CEO seat in this scheme, took the fall and lost his job.
Allegedly, Staffieri and Natale hadn’t gotten along for a while, and a power struggle to see who could remove the other from their position first began sometime in early 2021.
Moreover, while Edward threw his hat in with Staffieri, fellow board (and family) members Loretta A. Rogers, Martha L. Rogers, and deputy board chair Melinda M. Rogers-Hixon continued to back Natale.
October 18th-20th: Insider sources suggest that Edward Rogers is trying to reshuffle the board of directors, seemingly in retaliation for not supporting his plot to install Staffieri as CEO.
October 21st: The Globe and Mail publishes a second, extremely funny scoop. Apparently, Natale got wind — pun very much intended — that there was a scheme to unseat him because Staffieri accidently buttdialed him while in the middle of said scheming with Edward Rogers.
(A moment of silence to appreciate the irony of a telecom company boardroom drama where an accidental phone call is a major plot device.)
A few hours later, the Rogers board votes to remove Edward Rogers as its chair. While no longer chairperson, Edward remains on the board as a director.
Remember Edward’s rumoured plan to fire half the board and replace them with people who don’t disagree with him? Well it turns out that was true, as that same night Edward releases a statement announcing his intentions to remove John Clappison, David Peterson, Bonnie Brooks, Ellis Jacob, and John A. MacDonald (the new chair) from the board.
October 22nd: The morning after butt-dial gate, Rogers — the company, not the man — issues a formal response to Edward’s statement. The response, which positively drips with contempt, acknowledges Edward’s intention “to remove the majority of the independent directors of Rogers Communications Inc. and replace them with nominees of the Rogers Control Trust through a written resolution without convening a meeting of shareholders,” but emphasizes that the Company™ “is not aware of this mechanism ever having been utilized in respect of a public company in Canada.”
So why does this all matter, beyond being kind of entertaining to follow?
It matters because Rogers is currently trying to get its contentious March 2021 purchase of Shaw Communications okayed by the Canadian government.
The deal, valued at $26 billion, is still pending approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the Competition Bureau, and the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.
While Shaw has reasserted its commitment to the merger in the wake of all Rogers’ boardroom blitz, perceived instability in the company’s higher echelons could be another strike counted against Rogers.
This would be in addition to the many, many, many, many, many concerns about how the takeover could further reduce competition in Canada’s telecom market and result in higher prices / less choice for consumers.