Cisco closes in on Tandberg with 84-per cent stake

A day after it announced an extension of  its share tender offer till 3 December, Cisco Systems, says 84 per cent of the Norwegian videoconferencing equipment maker Tandberg ASA's shareholders have backed its 170 kroner ($30.32) per share offer.

The world's largest networking equipment maker now needs a mere 6 per cent to acquire Tandberg in its $3.4-billion takeover. The share tender was earlier to have expired yesterday.

Cisco said it would not extend its offer period beyond tomorrow and announce if it had mustered the requisite 90 per cent to complete its merger.

It also said it that would decide after the final tally after the expiration period on on 3 December whether to withdraw the offer or waive its stipulation of completing the deal if it received a 90 per cent backing.

Cisco, which has been on an acquisition spree, had announced its offer for Tandberg, the fastest growing company in the video conferencing industry with 2008 revenes of $809 million, barely two months back (See: Cisco to acquire Norway's Tandberg for $3 billion) in a bid to expand its video-conferencing products portfolio.

Cisco wants to integrate Tandberg's leading video endpoints and network infrastructure solution into its's collaboration architecture. This will enable intercompany and multi-vendor interoperability and ease of use across the full product portfolio - from desktop to immersive, multi-screen TelePresence..