As it turns out the Arris-Tandberg-Ericsson triangle might not get as ugly as I predicted last week: Tandberg TV's board of directors has unanimously voted to go with Ericsson's premium offer. As a result, the company withdrew its transaction agreement with Arris and will have to pay the company a $18 million termination fee within one business day after the change of recommendation. That's small potatoes when compared to the 63 percent premium Ericsson is gearing up to pay for Tandberg TV. Another consideration that factored in: Ericsson's offer does not put Tandberg TV shareholders at risk for potential changes in Arris' stock price, since its offer was partially in stock.
For more on the acquisition:
- see this company press release
- and revisit last week's analysis of the deal
Correction: As you'll note in the link above, I corrected my mistake from last week when I stated Jeff Heynen works at Dittberner. Heynen is an analyst at Infonetics.