BCE Emergis Acquires e-route

On April 19, 2002, BCE Emergis Inc. acquired e-route inc. from its six shareholders: CIBC, Mouvement Desjardins, National Bank of Canada, RBC Financial Group, Scotiabank and TD Bank Financial Group. The financial institutions and BCE Emergis concurrently restructured their working relationship to accelerate and expand the reach of webdoxs, e-route’s leading online bill presentment system. BCE Emergis acquired e-route shares for $6.9 million in cash and $19.5 million in assumed liabilities, for a total consideration of $26.4 million, plus contingent consideration of up to $13 million payable in the event that the webdoxs business reaches significant transaction milestones over the eight years following closing.
BCE Emergis was represented by Stikeman Elliott, with a team including Peter Castiel, Michel Généreux, Hélène Deschamps-Marquis and Howard Liebman in Montreal, and Martin Langlois in Toronto; and in-house by executive vice-president, law, and corporate secretary, Monique Mercier.
The selling shareholders were represented by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, with a team including Andrew Aziz, Andrew MacDougall, Greg McElheran and Daniel Shap. In-house counsel advising on the transaction were Roslyn Mounsey, TD Bank Financial Group; Thomas Onyshko, CIBC; and Kathy Roberts, RBC Financial Group.