Tausi Insider

Attabotics CEO Scott Gravelle, pictured in 2020, says the warehouse robotics company is looking to introduce a recurring revenue model where customers pay as they use the technology, in order to provide a stream of cash that is steadier than one-time installation contracts. Jeff McIntosh/Tausi Insider Export Development Canada has led a US$72-million investment in Calgary warehouse robotics startup Attabotics Inc., part of a recent strategy by the Crown corporation to boost support for globally-minded medium-sized companies. The federal government’s export financing arm is leading the investment, while Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which led a US$50-million of convertible debt financing to Attabotics in 2020, has converted its stake into equity and invested another US$11-million as part of this round. It’s the first deal involving Teachers’ venture growth unit since its $95-million investment in cryptocurrency exchange operator FTX vaporized last week. Other Attabotics investors in...

An employee does a quality control check on an assembly line of generic drugs at Pharmascience manufacturing facility in Montreal, Quebec. Christinne Muschi/Tausi Insider When federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos announced in April that the Trudeau government was dropping key aspects of its proposed plan to cut the cost of patented drugs, it looked like a truce had finally prevailed in the five-year long war between the pharmaceutical industry and the regulatory body that sets maximum prices for brand-name drugs in Canada. It did not take long, however, for hostilities to resume after the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) tabled draft regulations in October setting out new criteria the agency intends to use to determine whether to open an investigation into “excessive pricing.” The move has put the industry back on the warpath. It is calling on Mr. Duclos to scrap the new guidelines, which are set to take effect on Jan. 1, even though the PMPRB itself is in disarray....

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is led away by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force in Nassau on Dec. 13. Austin Fernander/The Associated Press Gus Carlson is a New York-based columnist for Tausi Insider. As revelations emerge about the vast scope of the FTX debacle, the inevitable comparisons are being made between its disgraced chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried and legendary Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. To be sure, both scoundrels were adept at parting fools and their money – lots of it. But Mr. Madoff’s victims might elicit some sympathy for being taken in by his carefully crafted façade of respectability. Mr. Bankman-Fried’s willing dupes should get no such leniency. They should have seen trouble coming. Mr. Bankman-Fried’s venture had more red flags than a Beijing military parade, the biggest one being that head office in the Bahamas. There is perhaps no redder flag than a corporate headquarters in a sketchy tax haven with a long history of dirty dealing that has been called...

The Competition Bureau’s continuing and, to date, fruitless crusade against telecom takeovers now has a price tag. Lawyers for the federal regulator and its opponents at Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T, Shaw Communications Inc. SJR-B-T and Quebecor Inc. QBR-B-T have billed more than $30-million for their services. The meter is still running, as the two sides prepare for the bureau’s appeal of last month’s Competition Tribunal decision that came down squarely in the telecom companies’ favour. Taxpayers are likely to pay a significant portion of those fees. The cost that can’t be measured, yet one that dwarfs the legal bills, is the price Canada pays for being a country where stuff just doesn’t get done. From cellphones to pipelines to national securities regulators, government red tape and petty agendas are getting in the way of doing business. CEOs and institutional investors look at a $20-billion Rogers bid for Shaw that’s coming up on its second birthday and see a transaction th...

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is led away by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force in Nassau on Dec. 13. Austin Fernander/The Associated Press Gus Carlson is a New York-based columnist for Tausi Insider. As revelations emerge about the vast scope of the FTX debacle, the inevitable comparisons are being made between its disgraced chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried and legendary Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. To be sure, both scoundrels were adept at parting fools and their money – lots of it. But Mr. Madoff’s victims might elicit some sympathy for being taken in by his carefully crafted façade of respectability. Mr. Bankman-Fried’s willing dupes should get no such leniency. They should have seen trouble coming. Mr. Bankman-Fried’s venture had more red flags than a Beijing military parade, the biggest one being that head office in the Bahamas. There is perhaps no redder flag than a corporate headquarters in a sketchy tax haven with a long history of dirty dealing that has been called...

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is led away by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force in Nassau on Dec. 13. Austin Fernander/The Associated Press Gus Carlson is a New York-based columnist for Tausi Insider. As revelations emerge about the vast scope of the FTX debacle, the inevitable comparisons are being made between its disgraced chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried and legendary Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. To be sure, both scoundrels were adept at parting fools and their money – lots of it. But Mr. Madoff’s victims might elicit some sympathy for being taken in by his carefully crafted façade of respectability. Mr. Bankman-Fried’s willing dupes should get no such leniency. They should have seen trouble coming. Mr. Bankman-Fried’s venture had more red flags than a Beijing military parade, the biggest one being that head office in the Bahamas. There is perhaps no redder flag than a corporate headquarters in a sketchy tax haven with a long history of dirty dealing that has been called...