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Darren Entwistle, Telus | BCBusinessTelus Corp. CEO Darren Entwistle. Back: 40 Years of BCBusiness
Telus’s 10-year transformation symbolizes the new face of telecommunications in Canada. The first decade of the new millennium was without a doubt the decade of telecommunications. Telcos, formerly lumbering giants controlled by government and beloved by pensioners for their secure dividends, would be rocked by deregulation and an explosion of technological innovation.
The first decade of the new millennium was without a doubt the decade of telecommunications. Telcos, formerly lumbering giants controlled by government and beloved by pensioners for their secure dividends, would be rocked by deregulation and an explosion of technological innovation.
While telcos across Canada were struggling to adapt, the most remarkable transformation was unfolding here in B.C., under the watch of a relatively untested newcomer.
Darren Entwistle was 37 years old when he was named CEO of the newly formed Telus Corp. in June 2000. At the time, the company was struggling under the weight of a $6-billion merger, completed in 1999. Telus was subject to wildcat strikes as it strove to bring four different unions under one collective agreement. It suffered executive defections resulting from a clash of cultures between B.C. and Alberta offices. And it was desperately in need of a strategy to expand its footprint across Canada and build out Internet and wireless infrastructure.
By the close of the decade, Telus would become Canada’s second-largest telecommunications firm, more than tripling its revenue to $9.8 billion, compared to its pre-merger 1999 revenue of $2.6 billion. Its wireless subscription base would grow from 2.1 million to 78.3 million, and high-speed Internet subscribers would increase from 84,000 to 1.3 million. Labour woes and executive defections would be a thing of the past as its positive work environment would be recognized regularly with national “best companies” awards.
The most dramatic transformations would also be the swiftest: within a year of stepping in to lead the company, Entwistle would stick-handle two of the biggest telecommunications acquisitions in Canadian history.
The first major deal under Entwistle’s stewardship was the $6.6-billion acquisition of Clearnet Communications Inc. in August 2000, which gave Telus a national wireless infrastructure as well as 2,600 additional staff. As Entwistle noted at the time, this filled in a key piece in Telus’s restructuring: “Wireless and IP applications are the two fastest-growing areas in telecommunications and their convergence will be the most significant event of the next decade for our industry. Our objective is to become the Canadian leader of this market.”
The Clearnet acquisition came just months after Telus had announced in March 2000 that it would be acquiring Quebec telecom service provider QuébecTel Group, expanding Telus’s footprint nationally. That purchase would be completed in November 2001, with a final price tag of $866.6 million.
A number of smaller acquisitions would follow these two blockbuster deals, boosting Telus’s expertise and capabilities in Internet hosting and services, and data management.
The company that at the start of the decade had been a relic of 20th-century telephone utilities, depending on wired local and long distance connections for 72 per cent of its revenue, would be a poster child for the new look of telecommunications in Canada. With a national footprint, by 2010 it would rely on wireless, Internet and TV for the majority of its revenue.