Audet to resign as Cogeco CEO but will stay with company

MONTREAL — Louis Audet is stepping aside as president and CEO of the Cogeco cable and broadcasting companies founded by his family, and will be replaced on Sept. 1 by Philippe Jette, who has been president of an affiliated company.

Audet — who has been chief executive officer of the two Cogeco publicly-traded companies for about 25 years — will become executive chairman of the board for both Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc.

His successor has been president of Cogeco Peer 1, which operates computer centres. Prior to that, Jette was Cogeco's chief technology and strategy officer after joining the Montreal-based companies in 2011.

Analyst Aravinda Galappatthige wrote in a research note that having a non-family member as Cogeco's chief executive may re-ignite speculation that Cogeco could be a takeover target for Rogers Communications Inc.

Rogers has held a sizable minority stake in Cogeco for many years but Audet has repeatedly stated he and his family intended to retain control of the company, which has Canada's fourth-largest cable operation after Rogers, Shaw Communications Inc. and Quebecor's Videotron.

Cogeco has cable systems in Ontario operate outside the Rogers territory and in parts of Quebec, a province where Rogers competes in the wireless business but doesn't have a presence in cable systems.