Cisco now has about 84 percent of Tandberg shares committed to its $3.4 billion bid to buy the Norwegian video conferencing company, and officials will decide Dec. 3 what their next step will be. If Cisco doesn't get the necessary 90 percent of the shares, it can walk away from the deal or waive the 90 percent requirement. However, Cisco officials said they will not extend the deadline a fourth time.
Cisco Systems is still short of having control of the 90 percent of
Tandberg shares it has set as a condition for buying the Norwegian
video conferencing equipment vendor.
Cisco officials said Dec. 2 that will wait until after the
Dec. 3 deadline to
decide whether they have reached the 90 percent threshold. If not, they
will either walk away from the $3.4 billion deal or waive the 90
percent requirement, they said.
However, Cisco will not extend the deadline a fourth time.
Currently Cisco has about 84 percent of Tandberg shares committed to the deal.
The vendor is looking to take a strong leadership position in the
video conferencing space by buying Tandberg. Cisco already makes number
of video conferencing products, including its TelePresence portfolio
What Tandberg would give Cisco is a stronger presence in the small and midsize business markets.
Cisco CEO John Chambers has said that video conferencing is a key
piece of the overall $34 billion collaboration space. Video
conferencing technology can help reduce travel costs for businesses,
and companies like
Cisco, Hewlett-Packard,
Verizon and
others are using it situations where remote communications makes sense,
such as enabling doctors to reach patients in rural areas and for
remote teaching.
Cisco on Oct. 1 announced its intent to buy Tandberg for $3 billion,
a bid that got the backing of Tandberg's board of directors. However,
investors that held almost 30 percent of Tandberg stock said the offer
was too low and that they preferred to see Tandberg stay independent or
get a better offer from Cisco or some other company.
Cisco on Nov. 17 upped the bid to almost $3.4 billion and extended
the deadline to Dec. 1. It then pushed the deadline to Dec. 3.
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