| Cisco Increases Offer Price and Extends Acceptance Period for Recommended Offer to Acquire TANDBERG |
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16/11/2009 16:50 (4 Day 14:23 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) on November 16 announced a revised recommended voluntary cash offer to acquire TANDBERG (OSLO: TAA).
Under the revised terms, Cisco will offer to purchase all the outstanding shares of TANDBERG for 170 Norwegian Kroner per share for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $3.4 billion. Cisco will also increase the interest payable on the offer price to a rate of 3.00% from a rate of 1.75%. This revised offer represents Cisco's final price for this transaction.
Shareholders representing in aggregate more than 30% of the outstanding shares, including TANDBERG'S largest shareholders Folketrygdfondet and OppenheimerFunds, have pre-accepted this offer based on this new price. These shares combined with the previously announced shareholder acceptances bring the total to in excess of 40% of the outstanding shares committed to the transaction.
Cisco believes that this revised offer remains consistent with the principles of prudence and financial fairness. If Cisco does not achieve the desired level of acceptances, the company will withdraw the offer and evaluate alternative ways to expand our activities in the video communications market.
As a result of the revised offer, Cisco has extended the acceptance period until December 1, 2009, at 17:30 p.m. CET. The offer document shall continue to apply for the new offer; provided that Cisco reserves the right to waive, in its sole discretion, any conditions to the offer, including, without limitation, the 90% acceptance level condition.
As announced on November 10, 2009, Cisco has already received acceptances representing 10,493,298 shares in TANDBERG or 9.37% of the shares and voting rights in TANDBERG. All holders of TANDBERG shares that have already tendered their shares will automatically benefit from the revised price.
As announced on October 1, 2009, the board of TANDBERG has unanimously recommended that shareholders accept a voluntary cash offer for 100% of the shares of TANDBERG.
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