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Related: Microsoft gave U.S. intelligence access to emails, web chats, Skype calls: Report – Financial Post

A fiscally responsible Cogeco

Like most of the rest of us, Cogeco Cable Inc. is trying to be a little more fiscally responsible – spend less and pay down some of its debt. Indeed, the cable operator may get a little bigger over the next year but it does not plan on making any major acquisitions as it focuses on paying down its debt after two recent large buys, reports the Financial Post’s Christine Dobby. Louis Audet, president and chief executive of the Quebec cable and Internet provider, said Thursday that rosy free cash flow projections won’t knock the company off course when it comes to its focus on deleveraging its balance sheet. It agreed to buy Vancouver-based data-hosting provider PEER 1 Networks for $526-million last December and acquired U.S. cable and Internet carrier Atlantic Broadband for $1.36-billion last summer. During a conference call after the company announced third-quarter results, Mr. Audet said Cogeco would consider further “tuck-in” acquisitions as smaller cable operators become available. “But by and large I don’t think any of these will make a meaningful difference on what we are presenting today for 2013 nor for 2014 because … they would in principle be sufficiently small so as not to modify our trajectory toward debt reduction,” he said.

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Another emerging markets-led crisis?

Don’t look now but another emerging markets crisis may be in the works. Indeed, the recent turbulence in emerging markets appears to be the result of more than just tapering risk courtesy of the Federal Reserve, reports the Financial Post‘s Jonathan Ratner. As the IMF trimmed its 2013 global growth forecast to 3.1% from 3.3% (and to 3.8% from 4% for 2014) on Wednesday, its chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, also warned emerging markets face cyclical and structural problems. As Canaccord Genuity portfolio strategist Martin Roberge put it, “after years of strong growth, BRICs are beginning to run into speedbumps.” He believes the IMF’s comments confirm uneasy sentiment among investors that emerging market economies are slowing down too fast, with the risk of spurring a full-blown crisis later this year or in 2014. “Since the 2001-02 recession, EM debt has been a major source for global investors in search for higher yield and growth,” Mr. Roberge said in a research note. “But now that the Chinese economy, the main source for EM growth, is slowing down and causing ripple effects in other EMs, there is an exodus from EM debt/equities which is being exacerbated by the Fed (tapering QE) and BOJ (“Abenomics”) actions.”

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