TORONTO, Ontario - The parent company of wireless startup Wind Mobile is taking another look at buying Mobilicity, a small rival that is operating under court protection from its creditors.
Wind Mobile CEO Anthony Lacavera said Tuesday that Globalive Wireless Management Corp. has applied to bid in the court-monitored sale of Mobilicity.
The deadline to submit bids for Mobilicity is Dec. 9.
“We threw our name in the process,” Lacavera said in an interview from Toronto. “We applied and hopefully the court will accept us as a qualified bidder.”
But Lacavera said it's not definitive that Wind will bid and wouldn't comment on the possible value of Mobilicity, which provides cellphone service in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver to about 190,000 customers.
However, Lacavera has said more than once recently that he would like to buy Mobilicity and believes the two companies would be stronger if they merged to compete against Rogers (
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“I have maintained the position since 2008 that we need to work together with other new entrants. This is just another opportunity to try to put something together,” he said. “We feel we're a very logical bidder.”
Lacavera said Wind Mobile needs more spectrum - radio waves needed to operate wireless communications networks - to offer faster, next-generation services to compete with the big three telcos.
Wind and Mobilicity were among new Canadian wireless carriers that emerged a few years ago to give consumers more competition.
The federal government has blocked Telus twice from buying Mobilicity, which has spectrum that was specifically set aside for startup companies in a federal auction in 2008. But Telus was recently permitted by Ottawa to buy startup Public Mobile because its spectrum is considered less valuable and didn't have any sale restrictions.
Mobilicity has been operating under court protection from its creditors since September. The struggling carrier has said in court documents that it has a number of parties interested in some, or all, of its assets.
According to the court documents, Mobilicity has been seeking a buyer since July 2012. The documents say it has pursued a variety of financing, sale and restructuring options, including a sale to Telus and had an “expression of interest” from U.S.-based Verizon (
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