Cogeco Takes $1.2 Billion Hit as Breezeline Loses Ground
The writedown wipes out nearly what Cogeco paid for its U.S. broadband business just four years ago.
June 2, 2026 – A Montreal-based cable operator wrote down $1.2 billion from its U.S. broadband unit Monday, as fiber and fixed wireless rivals continue to erode the customer base.
Cogeco Communications said the writedown, $1.7 billion in Canadian dollars, covers the goodwill and intangible assets tied to Breezeline, its U.S. internet service provider operating across 13 states.
The charge will be finalized in the company's third quarter fiscal 2026 results. The figure approximates what Cogeco paid for WOW!'s Ohio broadband systems in 2021, effectively erasing four years of acquisition value.
Cogeco attributed the charge to the intensifying competitive pressure it faces in the United States. “This preliminary amount reflects the competitive environment in which Cogeco operates in the United States,” the company said.
Breezeline ended its most recent quarter with 609,751 broadband subscribers, down 5,000 from the prior quarter and 23,000 fewer than a year earlier.
Revenue and EBITDA, a measure of earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization, have declined since 2024, as rivals offering fiber connections and fixed wireless packages have undercut Breezeline on price and aggressively locked in customers with long-term guarantees.
The writedown is a sharp reversal from the confidence Frédéric Perron, Cogeco's chief executive, projected as recently as January, when he told analysts that Breezeline would return to subscriber growth within “a handful of quarters.” Perron pointed at the time to improving trends in Ohio, where simplified pricing had begun to slow losses.
Jérome Dubreuil, an analyst at Desjardins, said in a note to investors that the scale of the impairment, equivalent to more than 60 percent of Cogeco's market capitalization, should not catch anyone off guard, given management's prior warnings about competitive headwinds. He added that the charge offered little new clarity on the long-term trajectory of the U.S. business.
Cogeco said the charge will not affect day-to-day operations or cash flows, and pointed to a range of measures it is implementing to stabilize its U.S. performance, including expanding its wireless offering and rolling out Welo, a new fully digital second brand launched earlier this year.
Cogeco's shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange and were down slightly in Monday trading.
