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).

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,

Rogers’ acquisition of Bell’s 37.5-per-cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment is unfolding against a backdrop of increasing chaos in North American sports broadcasting