Cisco Takes Another Swing at Tandberg

After making dismissive noises for a while in response to videoconferencing provider Tandberg shareholders’ resistance to its initial bid, Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) has come back with a new offer.  The new price of $3.41B is a 13.7% increase over its initial bid of $3B.  This time, Cisco seems to have a good number of votes in hand.  Shareholders representing some 30% of shares outstanding have preapproved the deal, making more than 40% total including those who accepted the first offer.

But for the deal to go through, they have to win over 90% – which remains a ways to go.  Hence, Cisco left open its threat to take the deal off the table completely if shareholders try to squeeze more out of them.  Frankly, it seems to me that the new offer is probably going to be good enough to get the job done this time.  Having won a fairly substantial concession from Cisco, they will take the money and run.

So the videoconferencing market isn’t going to dodge this one, Cisco means business.  Of course, another week has gone by which means that given their recent pace Cisco is probably due to announce yet another acquisition.  Must be nice to have an 11 figure balance in one’s bank account during a recession.

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Categories: Mergers and Acquisitions · Telecom Equipment