Buyout of BCE Terminated

Updated from 1:25 a.m. EST

The group trying to buy Canadian telephone company BCE(BCE Quote) terminated its offer because auditor KPMG concluded the deal to take the company private did not meet solvency requirements.

The merger agreement expired Thursday at 12:01 a.m. The buying group, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Providence Equity Partners, Madison Dearborn Partners, and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity, terminated the transaction because conditions of the deal weren't satisfied. The private-equity buyers also said in a statement Thursday that "under these circumstances neither party owes a termination fee to the other. "

The Wall Street Journal reports the breakup fee was $1.2 billion. BCE is expected to sue the private-equity group over the breakup fee, according to the Journal. ...