(Toronto) Torstar business partners Paul Rivett and Jordan Bitove have agreed to escalate their legal dispute to mediation-arbitration following “productive conversations” between the two parties.
Posted at 2:57 p.m.
A hearing took place on Monday, after Mr Rivett filed a motion with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice seeking a court order to wind up the media company early last month, citing ‘irreparable’ damage. to his relationship with Mr. Bitove.
MM. Rivett and Bitove are equal partners in Nordstar Capital, an investment firm that bought Torstar in 2020 for $60 million and controls all of its assets, including the daily Toronto Star.
Lawyers representing Mr Rivett told the court on Monday that the case was the result of “two different views” on how to navigate the business in the face of challenges facing the newspaper industry around the world.
They said the two sides should determine who will take over the business, but there was no need to expose the matter to the public.
Lawyers representing Mr. Bitove echoed those comments.
The start date of the mediation-arbitration process, which will be confidential, was not confirmed during the hearing.
In the document presented on 1er September in court, Mr Rivett claimed Mr Bitove had changed his mind about previously agreed plans, that he had not provided a daily budget Toronto Starwhich he oversees, which had failed to provide good corporate governance and had disregarded its responsibilities to Torstar and Nordstar.
In a statement released last week, Mr Bitove said he had no intention of apologizing for the way he ran the news business and argued that he had worked to make the resilient, more responsible and more competitive company.
Torstar holds an investment in The Canadian Press under a joint arrangement with affiliates of the Globe and Mail and of The Press from Montreal.