TVA Group Acquires Motion International

On May 12, 2000, TVA Acquisition Inc., 70 per cent of whose shares are owned by TVA Group Inc., with the balance owned by Capital Communications CDPQ Inc., completed its acquisition of all the issued and outstanding shares of Motion International Inc. (Motion) pursuant to a takeover bid launched on April 11, 2000.

The offer was made at a cash price of $5.45 per share of Motion, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $115 million. The acquisition will make TVA Group one of the leading producers of television programming in Canada and a burgeoning international distributor of both television and theatrical programming. It will also provide TVA Group with a vast catalog of rights which can be exploited both nationally and internationally. This transaction, combined with the recent equity investment in Internet player NETgraphe and the acquisition of French-language magazine publisher Trustar, positions TVA Group as a leading Canadian integrated communications company.

Montreal-based Desjardins Ducharme Stein Monast acted as counsel to TVA Group with a team led by Jean-Maurice Saulnier (M&A) and which included Jean-Pierre Chamberland (M&A), Martin Rolland (Corporate), Serge Gloutnay (Tax), Lucia Bourbonnais (Corporate) and François Renaud (Corporate).
In-house counsel Philippe Labelle, Director, Legal Affairs and Corporate Secretary of TVA Group led TVA Group's legal team which included Mimi Côté and Guylaine Bachand. Joey Mastrogiuseppe of Byers Casgrain also advised TVA Group on some aspects of the due diligence conducted on Motion International. Bernard Bussières of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP in Montreal advised Capital Communications CDPQ in the transaction. Heenan Blaikie acted as outside counsel to Motion International with Paul Franco (Ottawa) leading the M&A aspects of the transaction and Catherine Conides (Montreal) and Manon Thivierge (Montreal) taking care of the corporate and tax sides. In-house counsel for Motion was Claude Joli-Coeur. Sidney Horn of Stikeman Elliott (formerly with Goodman Phillips & Vineberg) advised the independent committee of Motion International.

Lawyer(s)

Luc Bourbonnais Paul J. Franco Manon Thivierge Martin Rolland Serge Gloutnay Bernard Bussières Catherine Conides Sidney M. Horn François Renaud Joey Mastrogiuseppe Claude Joli-Coeur Jean-Pierre Chamberland