Cisco Systems has sweetened its offer to Tandberg shareholders in its continuing
effort to acquire the video conferencing company.
The new offer by Cisco is to purchase all outstanding shares of Tandberg for
170 Norwegian kroner per share for an aggregate purchase price of approximately
$3.4 billion, Cisco said in a statement. Cisco’s original offer was worth
about $3 billion.
Cisco says shareholders representing more than 30 percent of outstanding
shares, including the company’s largest shareholders, Folketrygdfondet and
OppenheimerFunds, have preaccepted the offer based on the new price, bringing
the total shareholder acceptances to more than 40 percent, according to Cisco.
here to read about Cisco’s collaboration and video conferencing strategy.
Cisco has required that it be able to purchase 90 percent of shares for the
deal to go through. The company has extended the offer through Dec. 1.
Tandberg’s board unanimously recommended the increased offer to shareholders,
and the company’s CEO in a statement Nov. 16 urges shareholders to accept
the offer.
"This revised offer only further demonstrates Cisco’s belief in our
technology and our people," says Fredrik Halvorsen, CEO.
"We continue to believe that Cisco and Tandberg share a vision of changing
the way people communicate and collaborate, and that the combination of
world-class technologies, Cisco’s global scale and exceptional people from both
organizations will enable us to accelerate innovation and market
adoption."
A Bloomberg report notes that while some
shareholders say the offer is not high enough, analysts believe it is high enough to get the
deal done.