Regulators Should Reject C&W FLOW Deal
Submit by Anthony Davis
A ‘NEW COMPANY’ will emerge once regulators approve Cable & Wireless Communications’ (CWC) intended acquisition of Columbus International Inc. And while the plan also includes ‘a new leadership team, and a new culture’, CWC’s chief executive officer Phil Bentley said the company did not intend to *’pre-empt the regulatory process’. He also said it was too early to say what the company would be called – Daily Nation 19/01/2015
First of all, “a rose by any other name is still a rose”. Ergo, no matter what you call it a behemoth remains a behemoth!
I see this as a means of blackmailing the regulators, and should be treated as such. CWC must realise that Barbados is a sovereign and independent country and we do not like the attitude of the CEO. We are in the twenty-first century and we reject his master-slave attitude. I think that the regulators should reject CWC’s bid – if for nothing else but the act of trying to bribe them!
CWC has not told us that it is part of the biggest communications company in the world, and when we come under that it would be lights out for Barbados as we would not have any say in what they do.
I am totally against this juggernaut which owns companies all over the world. What could we do if they do something that we don’t want? We need independent entities in our country!
Barbados Underground 
We learned Jamaica approved the merger last week and there is an air of resignation that the toothless Fair Trading Commission in Barbados will follow same.
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I would be surprised if the Fair Trading Commission acted in the best interest of the consumers but hope springs eternal.
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While You Were Getting Worked Up Over Oil Prices, This Just Happened to Solar
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A reminder we have started LAWYERS in the NEWS page. Please email your suggestions and experiences for review and update.
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A number of people have mentioned, that all of the formality is just that. They have mentioned that this, internally in the companies, is already seen as a done deal and was so ever since.
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“I am totally against this juggernaut which owns companies all over the world.”
Actually, not that many and not across so much of the world:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_%26_Wireless_Communications#Operations
Cable and Wireless Communications, which is owns Lime and wants to own Flow is a regional spin-off company resulting from a demerger from the old larger Cable and Wireless company.
C&WC operates:
“In the Pan-America region Cable & Wireless Communications owns 14 businesses in the Caribbean and has a minority stake in TSTT in Trinidad. In Central America it owns 49%, and has management control, of Cable & Wireless Panama, the leading full service telecoms business in Panama. Cable & Wireless Communications is also the major shareholder in Monaco Telecom.”
So in reality, it’s a Caribbean company with a Monaco presence, domiciled in the UK.
Sorry to be boring – and just to make sure I am not misunderstood, I do not believe that the acquisition of Flow a good thing. We need all the competition we can get.
Slightly off-topic but Lime was in the news this week promising another $100 million of investment in Barbados. Call me a sceptic, but that wouldn’t be the same money that Flow was going to invest prior to the merger, would it?
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David January 21, 2015 at 11:48 PM #
We learned Jamaica approved the merger last week and there is an air of resignation that the toothless Fair Trading Commission in Barbados will follow same.
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Of course Jamaica would readily approve the merger. They haven’t merged yet and Jamaica is already seeing a dip in its unemployment statistics, as they have provided LIME in Barbados with most of the “Technician”, which we see running around in vans all over the island, to the detriment of the Bajan Technicians, who are now engaged on a “Knot Hole stopping,” basis.
But have you ever had a good critical look at the orientation of LIME’s logo? It tells you quite plainly that they are not on the level.
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