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Heritage

Mobilicity

Closed sold to Rogers, 2015

Wireless carrier · Toronto · Canada-wide

Bitove's run at the wireless oligopoly: Mobilicity launched in 2010 as a discount carrier in Canada's biggest cities and was sold to Rogers Communications in 2015. The brand is gone, but it helped force the cheaper wireless plans Canadians now take for granted.

Details

Founded
2008 (spectrum); launched 2010
People
John Bitove Jr., founder (via Obelysk)

Sources (1)

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bitove

  • Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. — the Stavro years

    Sport & entertainment · Toronto

    Closed sold 2003

    The boy who sorted fruit on Queen Street ended up owning the Toronto Maple Leafs. Steve Stavro joined the Maple Leaf Gardens board in 1981, took the chair in 19...

    Macedonian connection: The grocer from Gabresh became owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the driving force behind the arena now called Scotiabank Arena.

    Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Stavro

  • Montecito Restaurant

    Restaurant · Toronto (Entertainment District)

    Closed 2020s

    The Bitove brothers' Entertainment District restaurant, opened with filmmaker Ivan Reitman, carried the family's hospitality name into Toronto's premiere-night...

    Macedonian connection: The Bitove brothers' Adelaide Street restaurant, which sent Mother's Day lunch to Canadian Macedonian Place's residents during the pandemic.

    Sources: https://canadianmacedonianplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/CMP-Zdravets-Newsletter_2022.pdf

  • Nortel Networks — the Zafirovski years

    Telecommunications (affiliated leadership) · Toronto

    Closed Nortel entered creditor protection 2009

    Nortel was never a Macedonian company, but from 2005 to 2009 the century-old giant was steered by one: Mike Zafirovski, born in Skopje in 1953, formerly of Gene...

    Macedonian connection: Canada's telecom giant was led through its final chapter by Skopje-born Mike Zafirovski — an affiliation entry, not a Macedonian-owned business.

    Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Zafirovski

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