Rogers Communications is buying out Bell’s 37.5% share of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment for $4.7 billion ($3.5 billion U.S.), giving it 75% ownership of the sports conglomerate. Rogers and Bell had held equal shares of MLSE,

TORONTO — Rogers Communications Inc. is buying out Bell’s 37.5 per cent share of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment for $4.7 billion, giving it 75 per cent ownership of the sports conglomerate. Rogers and Bell had held equal shares of MLSE, which owns the NHL Maple Leafs, NBA Raptors, CFL Argonauts, MLS Toronto FC and AHL Marlies.

From the moment it happened in 2011, the partnership seemed like a lower-stakes, modern-day version of mutually assured destruction: Bell Canada Enterprises and Rogers Communications, each other’s primary competitors, coming together to buy a majority share of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE).