and faceoff.com, and newspaper portals across the country, as well as a 50% interest in the National Post (History).These purchases allowed CanWest to bring together its print, broadcast, and Internet holdings to create the countries most comprehensive, multiple-platform international media company. Whats significant is the magnitude of these deals is that they are unprecedented. First the $860 million WIC purchase was the largest acquisition in the history of Canadian media. But now the $3.2 billion transaction to bring the Hollinger newspaper assets to CanWest remains the biggest media convergence deal ever consummated in Canada. The deal transformed CanWest into a $7.5 billion international media company and the largest Canadian publisher of daily newspapers. CanWests Canadian operations vaulted from being a near national television network with about 1,000 employees, to a multi-media company with over 10,000 employees. (President and CEOs Report to Shareholders)By any measure, the most significant management challenge for CanWest in 2001 was to successfully absorb and integrate these new assets and their staff into the CanWest management systems and culture in way that will achieve the desired benefits. One would assume to achieve these goals, CanWest required some strategic additions and adjustments to top-level management, including a change of ownership in the case of the newspapers and online properties, and a substantial diversification in the case of their pre-existing television and entertainment division employees. Reasons for ChangeWhat encouraged CanWest to make these substantial changes is the level of synergy available in a diversified media company. Synergy is created when already profitable individual divisions become more valuable and generate higher returns when working together than would be possible if they continued to work separately. Altogether, the two transactions tripled the size of CanWest.CanWest is...
