Wow!
In one fell swoop, the federal government has abruptly derailed plans by Telus Corp. and BCE Inc. to convert themselves into income trusts. "BCE and Telus will not be able to become income trusts and have the tax benefits that are currently available," Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said after unveiling new rules aimed at puncturing the income trust phenomena. Obviously, the federal government finally got spooked by the growing number of companies looking to avoid paying income tax  by converting themselves into income trusts but you've got to believe Telus CEO Darren Entwistle and BCE CEO Michael Sabia must feel betrayed because they were acting by the existing rules. The key question is whether the move is political or grounded in economic reality. Are the federal PCs worried more about winning the next election or are they truly concerned federal coffers are being depleted by the income trust scourge. Mark Goldberg has some thoughts about Flaherty's move, while highlighting that Rogers has seen its stock climb through the creation of higher shareholder value. Anyone want to bet how much Telus and BCE shares will plummet on Wednesday? If you thought Entwistle was unhappy before (according to the recent Report on Business magazine profile on him), you ain't seen nothing yet if Telus shares drop 10% to 20%.
One more key thought: Do you think Sabia killed (or to be even more blunt...f**ked) Entwistle's income trust party by unveiling his own income trust plans so soon after Telus did? If BCE hadn't finally jumped on the income trust bandwagon, maybe Flaherty would not have have felt so much pressure to get involved. But with the country's largest ILECs trying to walk away from paying income tax, Flaherty may have felt enough was enough. Truth be told, BCE was probably the straw the broken the income trust's back. I mean when Canada's telephone company moves to avoid paying $800-million in income tax, it's likely not going to go over well in Ottawa.
Update: The Globe & Mail's Eric Reguly has an interesting column, suggesting Flaherty made a bold move but could have committed political suicide.

Google's shopping trip through the Web 2.0 start-up market continued with the purchase of Wiki maker Jot.com. In the scheme of things, it's chump change for Google but it does put the spotlight back on Google's online application suite, which will come as little surprise to anyone when it's eventually launched one day. Jot.com is a nice addition because it brings a collaboration tool into the mix. The purchase got me thinking about what people are currently doing to cobble together an online office suite. Since I started working from home (and I can't be too effusive about not having to commute anymore!), I've really got into Web-based tools. This includes Skype, Google Talk, Writely, Yahoo Mail, PBWiki, along with Flock and Firefox. I'd be curious to see what other tools are people are using. Tags: Google, M&A

Talk about letting the good times roll for the cable industry. Today, Rogers Communications posted better-than-expected third-quarter results that provide more evidence how the cablecos are thriving while many carriers are struggling to find any kind of growth. Rogers' operating profits jumped to $784-million, compared with estimates of $727-million, while wireless operating profits were $563-million, compared with UBS Securities' estimate of $511-million. For people looking for insight into the growth of cable telephony, Rogers added 106,000 customers, while losing 24,000 traditional circuit customers (part of Call-Net's operations). In terms of guidance for 2006 as a whole, Rogers is now looking for a $90-million bump in operating profits to $1.9-billion and 300,000 net cable telephone subscribers adds (a 50K bump from the second-quarter). Tags: cable, rogers, VoIP

Paris: the city of light....and now the conference for bloggers. I just took a quick look at Les Blog 3's schedule, and it makes you want to book a flight right now. Some of the highlights include Index Ventures' Danny Rimer, one of Skype's early investors, Netvibes' Tariq Kim, and FON's Martin Varsavsky. Some guy named Michael Arrington is giving the opening keynote.