BCE $52 Billion Takeover Dropped

It looks like the $52 billion takeover deal to privatize BCE has been declared “terminated”, due to KPMG concluding that the company-to-be would not pass a solvency test, which is a requirement of closing the deal. To further muddy the waters, the BCE is now demanding a “breakup fee” of $1.2 billion from the purchaser, since all the closing conditions had been satisfied by BCE, aside from the solvency issue.