The Guardian
By Leyland Cecco
November 6th, 2021
Succession-style feud settled as court sides with Edward Rogers: The fight for Rogers Communications has riven one of Canada’s richest families— and it began with an accidental ‘butt dial’…
For weeks, Canadians have been gripped by a messy public feud splintering one of the country’s richest families. Kicked off by an accidental pocket dial that revealed an executive-level coup attempt, the battle has pitted mother against son, ensnared Toronto’s mayor and drawn comparisons to the HBO show Succession.
Two separate groups of directors have proclaimed themselves the rightful stewards of Rogers Communications, a sprawling C$30bn telecommunications and entertainment empire with interests in media, professional hockey, basketball, baseball, football and soccer.
On Friday, a Canadian court ruled that the faction led by Edward Rogers, son of the company’s late founder, had the power to legally replace directors without a shareholder meeting, granting the eldest son immense power over the country’s largest wireless carrier in a ruling viewed as a blow to shareholders’ rights.
Since the company’s founder, Ted Rogers, died in 2008, the company has been forced to fend off criticism that it has underperformed industry peers. And with no clear successor named before Rogers’ death, questions over who in the family would eventually take charge have lingered for more than a decade. While Rogers is publicly traded, it has a dual share structure, with voting control still held by the family.
The saga began last month after Ted’s son Edward covertly tried to replace the company’s chief executive, Joe Natale, with its chief financial officer, Tony Staffieri. The plan was foiled after Staffieri accidentally called Natale while discussing the plot with someone else – leading to perhaps the first use of the phrase “butt dial” in a headline by Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper, which broke the story.
As the power struggle spilled out of the boardroom and into public view, family matriarch Loretta Rogers and her daughters Martha Rogers and Melinda Rogers-Hixon publicly backed Natale. The trio, exercising their role as directors, ousted Edward as chairman of the Rogers board. But Edward pushed back, announcing the replacement of five board directors with his own handpicked candidates, who swiftly re-elected him. In Friday’s ruling, the British Columbia supreme court sided with Edward, ruling that his unilateral changes were permitted.
