BCE Agrees to Landmark LBO

Canada's dominant telecom company will go private in the country's biggest takeover ever, and one of the largest LBOs in the world. A powerful teachers' retirement fund and two American private-equity firms made a deal yesterday for CBE, also known as Bell Canada. The $48.5 billion (C$51.7 billion) bid must still clear regulators and shareholders.

Canadian law limits foreign ownership of telecom companies, meaning Providence Equity and Madison Dearborn will be minority partners to the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, already BCE's largest stockholder. The Globe and Mail reports that the consortium beat out a team that included KKR and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board and a collaboration between Cerberus Capital and several Canadian entities. (More Canada stories.)