Table of Contents 6 2012 OVATION Awards Winning Entries

May 10, 2011 – Teachers’ announces that it has an reached an agreement to purchase the shares of
its minority partner, TD Capital, bringing its ownership stake up to 79.53 per cent. This purchase is
made with the intent of making the asset more attractive to potential buyers and streamlining the
sales process.
November 25, 2011 – Teachers’ announces that it will retain its majority stake of MLSE after failing
to reach an acceptable agreement. They immediately turn their attention to the administration of
MLSE and start putting plans into place that reflect their enhanced ownership position.
December 9, 2011 – Teachers’ announces that it will sell its share of MLSE to Rogers and Bell for
$1.32 billion at a joint press conference at the Air Canada Centre.
There were a number of challenges that surfaced. Throughout the sales process Teachers’ had to be
prepared for the leak of information to the media from one of the multiple parties involved inside and
outside of MLSE. The initial Toronto Star article was the result of a leak, and Teachers’ had to include a
strategy for dealing with a leak in every scenario.
Additionally, the intense interest that the sports media and fans have in MLSE’s teams made it difficult
to present this transaction as a business story.
Finally, there were multiple actors involved in the sales process (other shareholders, buyers, MLSE),
each of whom had divergent interests. This made it difficult to ensure that Teachers’ messages
penetrated and resonated with key audiences.
In a campaign that featured a number of challenges, perhaps the stickiest situation Teachers’ had to
negotiate was the last minute decision to sell, which reversed an announcement made just two weeks
earlier. In late November, Teachers’ in good faith announced that it was going to hold on to MLSE. In
fact, it started putting concrete plans into place for the administration of the company based on its
enhanced ownership position. Teachers’ had even set a date to announce some of the planned changes.
But everything changed when Rogers and Bell unexpectedly came back to the table with a new,
unsolicited offer. The offer met all of the terms and conditions that Teachers’ considered necessary to
complete the sale. As fiduciaries to the pensions of Ontario teachers, it was Teachers’ duty to accept the
offer, despite the reversal on their previously stated position.
Carefully crafted messages that focused on the positive aspects of the deal, especially for members of
the pension plan, were utilized to minimize attention on the apparent flip‐flop. To Teachers’ relief, this
theme was not found in coverage of the deal.
6. Measurement/Evaluation:
The outcomes of the sale – the terms of the deal and the media coverage – were an unabashed success
for Teachers’. The sale was a front page story in every Toronto newspaper and was the lead story on The
National, CTV National News and Global News. There were almost 150 stories on the sale within a week
of the announcement (December 9 to December 15, 2011). Much of the coverage was positive and
complimentary of Teachers’ role in the sale. Perhaps the best example is the Forbes Magazine article
entitled Ontario Teachers’ Ink the Greatest Sports Deal in History, which states that “Other sports
owners have done well owning sports teams, but none have realized the massive‐sized gain Ontario
Teachers’ is now achieving. The big winners here: 295,000 teachers in Ontario, both active and retired.”
[http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2011/12/09/the‐greatest‐sports‐deal‐in‐history/]