Desire2Learn and Dialogue, two prominent Canadian tech companies that have thrived during the pandemic, are considering going public.

Who are they? Desire2Learn is a Kitchener-based online learning platform. They build e-learning products that help students succeed in online courses and teachers manage their classrooms. With COVID-19 forcing schools to go online, demand for their products has never been greater.

Dialogue is a Montreal-based digital health care platform that provides 'doctors-on-demand' services to patients. Similarly to D2L, the 'new normal' has seen a huge spike of interest in their platform and now both companies are keen to make the most of their recent fortunes.

Why now? D2L and Dialogue are watching their Canadian cousin Shopify's share price spike in response to COVID-19 and they want in on the action. Also, the markets are generally pretty good and investors seem pretty keen about companies who can add value in a COVID world.

The CEO of D2L recently said that any money raised in a public offering would give them the horsepower they need to grow even faster than planned.

So what's next? Going public isn't a simple process and it normally involves a combination of underwriters and investment bankers to prepare the company for an offering.

But it seems like both Dialogue and D2L have started this process and conventional wisdom would point to an offering later this year or early next.

Doesn't matter if you cheer for the Canucks or the Habs, there's one thing we can all agree on: Canadian telcos (telecommunication providers) are awful. And it might get worse...

Rogers and Altice USA are continuing their efforts to acquire Quebec-based provider Cogeco. Despite resistance from the controlling shareholder, the Audet family, Rogers and Altice are doubling their efforts to purchase the firm.

Why does it matter? One of the main reasons our phone/cable/internet bills are so expensive is because of a lack of competition.

Regulations make it really hard to compete against the Big 3 Canadian telcos – Rogers, Bell and Telus.

Cogeco is one of the few minority players left and any takeover of them by the Big 3 will only strengthen their power and, likely, result in higher prices for consumers.

But will it happen... The Audet family has said publicly that their shares are not up for sale which effectively blocks any acquisition of Cogeco. That being said, everyone does have a price... and if anyone can match the Audet family's, it's Rogers.

Have you ever e-transferred the wrong amount? If you have, you know it sucks to have to go back to the recipient and get the money back. Now, multiply that mistake by 100x and you have the Citigroup and Birgade Capital Management dispute.

Last month, billionaire investor Ron Perelman contracted Citi Bank to help him restructure the corporate loans of cosmetic company Revlon. As part of the deal, Citi was to restructuring $900m of loans, even returning some capital to lenders but... the bank made a huge mistake.

Citi accidentally transferred $170m of cash from Revolon to Brigade Capital Partners, which they were supposed to receive in payouts years from now – and now Brigade is refusing to give it back.

Seriously?!? Brigade argues that it's not clear that the money was returned to the lender in a clerical mistake.

But... Citi claims the opposite, saying Brigade is should be well aware that virtually no company, let alone a distressed company such as Revlon, would ever make a payment that big to a lender.

What's next? They're taking it to court. Citi is seeking a court ordered mandate for Brigade return the money. But for Brigade, this is a win-win... If they lose the court case, they'll return a bunch of money that wasn't theirs in the first place and if they win it's a huge bonanza for the fund! How fun.

With Trump turning his sights on Huawei, Samsung is looking to fill the void with a $6.6bil deal with Verizon. The South Korean company announced that it signed a huge contract to be the exclusive provider of 5G equipment to the US telco.

Zoom out: In response to concerns about Chinese surveillance, a number of Western countries are banning domestic telecommunication providers from using Huawei hardware.

The challenge for telcos is that Huawei is a leader in 5G technology and they need to build 5G capacity to keep up with the latest innovations, such as self-driving vehicles.

Nokia was seen as the best non-Chinese alternative to Huawei, but complaints over quality issues has created a opening for a new supplier.

That's where Samsung comes in. The Korean technology giant is looking to leverage Government sentiment against China and quality issues with Nokia to become the leading supplier of 5G technology to western countries.

Their Verizon deal is a good first step.