Canadian communications group, CanWest Global Communications Corp, has decided to end its reign of the Ten Network and will sell its shares in the open market.

The agreement, struck yesterday in Australia where CanWest chief executive officer Leonard Asper flew for marathon talks with bankers, will see the company sell its half stake in the Australian TV channel TEN for roughly $634-million.

The sale signals the end of the international expansion for Canadian’s largest media company who has been in financial trouble in recent times.

CanWest owns the Global Television network in Canada as well as a host of cable TV channels and daily newspapers.

Over the past two years the conglomerate business branched out to the UK, Europe and Oceania, owning broadcast assets in all regions.

However it has since been forced to sell many of those businesses as it battled to deal with a debt load of nearly $4 – billion.

The Australian channel was arguably the savviest purchase CanWest’s late founder Izzy Asper ever made. Acquired for a paltry $45-million in 1992, TEN’s profits helped fuel the company’s broadcasting operations back home.

Last year, it was estimated the half stake in the Channel Ten Network was worth well over $1 – billion, meaning yesterday’s decision to sell for almost half of that price was made for urgency rather than profitability.

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