TORONTO, May 24 (Reuters) – Manitoba Telecom Services Inc
will sell its Allstream fiber optic network to a
company controlled by telecom tycoon Naguib Sawiris for C$520
million ($502.8 million), a deal that signals the Egyptian
billionaire is still keen on the Canadian market.

Under an agreement announced on Friday, Accelero Capital
Holdings, which was founded by Sawiris and is stacked with
executives from telecom companies he owns or is invested in,
gets MTS’s Allstream network, which serves 50,000 business
customers.

TORONTO, May 21 (Reuters) – BlackBerry no longer
owns the fast-paced, innovative smartphone world but the
company, whose email-on-your-hip devices once revolutionized the
industry, now aims to run it.

The change in focus was hard to miss at the company’s
well-attended annual conference in Florida last week, even as
news of a new smartphone model and its plans to offer the
popular BlackBerry Messaging (BBM) instant message service on
other platforms grabbed the headlines.

, May 14 (Reuters) – BlackBerry
announced plans on Tuesday to offer its popular instant
messaging system on rival devices and introduced a new mid-tier
smartphone targeted at countries where its faded brand remains
strong.

Tapping into its popularity outside North America,
BlackBerry said the new Q5 smartphone would be available in
selected markets in Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East
and Africa.

TORONTO (Reuters) – Tim Hortons Inc (THI.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) named a long-time Nestle executive as its new chief on Wednesday, a job that will be no easy task given drooping demand at the Canadian coffee and doughnut chain and a push by a U.S. hedge fund for better returns.

Shares of Tim Hortons, which boasts that it sells eight of every 10 cups of coffee sold in Canada, fell more than 2.5 percent after the company posted its first decline in established store sales since its 2006 initial public offering.

TORONTO, May 8 (Reuters) – Tim Hortons Inc, which
is under pressure from a U.S. hedge fund seeking better returns,
named a new chief executive on Wednesday and reported a 3
percent fall in first-quarter profit.

The Canadian coffee and doughnut chain said Marc Caira, a
long-time Nestle SA executive, would take over from
interim CEO Paul House on July 2. Caira, 59, was most recently
the global head of Nestle Professional.

TORONTO (Reuters) – BlackBerry’s new Q10 smartphone, which comes with the physical keyboard that many BlackBerry fans prize, is selling well in both Canada and Britain, an industry analyst said on Friday.

The company introduced the Q10, its second smartphone to run the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, in Canada and Britain this week.

TORONTO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Highfields Capital, a U.S. hedge fund agitating for change at Tim Hortons Inc, may have a hard time convincing institutional investors that the chain that says it sells eight out of every 10 cups of coffee in Canada needs a wake-up call.

The Boston-based activist investor, with an about 4 percent stake in the company, wants Tim Hortons to boost shareholder returns by taking on new debt to buy back its stock.

TORONTO/NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) – Highfields Capital, a
U.S. hedge fund agitating for change at coffee shop chain Tim
Hortons Inc, faces a difficult task in trying to
persuade long-term institutional investors of the merits of its
plan to shake up the Canadian company.

The Boston-based activist investor now owns around a 4
percent stake in Tim Hortons and wants the chain, which is
ubiquitous in Canada, to boost its returns via debt-funded share
buybacks, while scaling back its U.S. expansion plans.

TORONTO, May 1 (Reuters) – Highfields Capital, a U.S. hedge
fund agitating for drastic change at iconic Canadian
coffee-and-doughnut chain Tim Hortons Inc, is set for
an uphill battle convincing some long-term institutional
investors of the merits of its case.

The Boston-based activist investor, which owns a 1.5 percent
stake in Tim Hortons, wants the Canadian chain to boost returns
aggressively via debt-funded share buybacks, while also scaling
back on its U.S. expansion plans.

TORONTO, April 24 (Reuters) – Barrick Gold Corp,
making a painful adjustment to a sustained slump in bullion
prices, reported progress in controlling costs on Wednesday and
said it is further reducing capital spending, sending its shares
higher.

The world’s No. 1 gold producer also said it may suspend
work at Pascua-Lama, its largest project under development,
located high in the Andes Mountains. A Chilean court has halted
some work at the project, which straddles the border of Chile
and Argentina.