BCE buyout gets a lifeline

Just last week, it looked like the $52.9 billion buyout of BCE (NYSE: BCE) was dead after a Canadian court ruled that the company must look at the interests of bondholders as well. The upshot: the deal was stopped.

Well, things are looking somewhat better now as the Supreme Court of Canada is going to expedite the process to determine the validity of the ruling.

True, there's no guarantee that the court will reverse the ruling, but then again, at least BCE will get a quick resolution, which is important in light of the June 30th deadline on the deal (when the private equity sponsors can walk away from the deal without paying a break-up fee).

Yet, the BCE transaction still has other major hurdles. The banks are nervous about extending the massive loans for the deal. Keep in mind that there is a November deadline after which the bankers are not required to fund the deal.

In light of all this, it seems a good bet that there'll be a renegotiation on the terms of the deal.

So far in today's trading, BCE's shares are up nearly 4% to $35.27.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.