Arbiter finds Hollinger owes Canwest $51 million
By Adnews Staff
After a 16-month process, an arbitrator has awarded Canwest Global Communications $50.7 million in a dispute with Hollinger International, now Sun-Times Media Group, and related parties. The award does not include interest and legal costs, which will be determined later. The dispute concerned Canwest's acquisition of various Hollinger assets in 2000, including its newspaper chain, Internet properties, magazines, some community publishing operations and 50% of the National Post. The deal was valued at $3.5 billion. Canwest originally claimed it was owed $84 million, while Hollinger asserted it was owed $116 million from Canwest. "While the proceedings have been protracted over several years, we obviously feel justified that the time and effort it took to pursue the claim has been worth it," said Canwest president and CEO Leonard Asper said. "The results demonstrate the value of our resolve in dealing with this issue."