Telco giant bce says shareholders of ctv have tendered 52.9 million common shares under bce’s $38.50 per share offer, which equals 99% of the ctv shares outstanding. Shares tendered to date include seven million common shares held by Electrohome Broadcasting.

In a statement, bce says it will pay for all shares tendered, and will extend its offer to April 17 to allow the holders of the untendered shares to tender them. bce will transfer shares bought to a trustee, pending regulatory approvals. The change of ownership of ctv will require approval by the crtc.

As part of the conditions related to bce’s $2.32-billion purchase of ctv, the two companies have entered into an Internet content distribution agreement.

The agreement, which spans the next 10 years, provides that current and future ctv programming will be exclusively available on the Internet through the portal sites operated by bce.

ctv, meantime, reported a $3.7-million loss in its second quarter, ended Feb. 29, compared to a net income of $112,000 for the same period in 1999. The broadcaster says the loss flows from higher interest costs because, following its purchase of a 68% interest in NetStar Communications, it racked up higher debt levels. The company is also assuming its share of the loss recorded by Sportsnet during the quarter. eps for ctv’s Q2 is a $0.06 per-share loss, compared with eps of $0.00 for the same quarter of 1999.

For the six months ended Feb. 29, ctv’s net income was $10.4 million, as against $16.4 million for the first half of fiscal 1999. eps was $0.18 for the six months ended Feb. 29, 2000, down from $0.38 eps for the same period a year earlier.

Susan Tolusso and Samantha Yaffe