Over most of its 80 plus years of existence MLSE was a public company. Following the death of majority owner Harold Ballard in 1990, Steve Stavro led a controversial bid to buy the company and take it private. In 2012, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan sold their 79.53% share of the company for billion to a joint venture between Rogers Communications and BCE Inc., two of Canada's largest media companies, giving the company an equity value of billion and an enterprise value of billion.