Cisco to Tandberg Shareholders: You’ll Accept $3.04 billion and Like It
by John Paczkowski
Posted on October 30, 2009 at 8:19 AM PT
Cisco has a message for Tandberg shareholders pressing the networking giant to raise its $3.04 billion offer for the company: Take it or we’re leaving.
Sources tell Bloomberg that Cisco (CSCO) has little intention of meeting the demands of a group of investors who would like it to reach a bit deeper into its wallet before they hand over their 24 percent stake in Tandberg, the world’s second largest manufacturer of videoconferencing kit. Cisco would rather walk away than sweeten a bid that represents a 38.3 percent premium on Tandberg’s closing share price on the day before news of a possible acquisition broke.
Or that’s what Cisco wants them to think, anyway. Because scrapping what is a pretty strategic deal for the company would be silly at this point given Cisco’s huge cash reserves. Rumors that it would “strongly consider walking away” from Tandberg are likely more gamesmanship than anything else.
“I think it’s quite unlikely that they’ll drop their offer, everything points to them buying Tandberg,” Arctic Securities analyst Martin Hoff told Bloomberg. “It’s probably smart of them to send some signals to scare the shareholders into accepting the offer.”
Comments
Perhaps the shareholders are hoping to get a counteroffer from HP, who, unless they prefer Polycom, might fancy snatching Tandberg away from Cisco.
Posted by Danny Miller at October 30th, 2009 at 8:57 am