Cisco ups Tandberg offer by $426 million

Network giant Cisco has increased its original offer for Norwegian video telepresence provider Tandberg by US$400m ($426m) after saying that it would not increase its offer.

At a Telepresence conference last week Chris Dedicoat, President of European Markets at Cisco, said: “The company believes that the price it has offered for Tandberg represents the value of the company.”

However, Tandberg shareholders rebuffed Cisco's original offer of US$3bn, prompting the new offer of US$3.4bn.

Cisco said that the new offer will only be on the table until 1 December - but that it needs the agreement of 90 percent of Tandberg shareholders to secure the deal.

The hike in Cisco's bid indicates how important the acquisition is to the company, which currently offers high-end Telepresence technology to market leaders. The deal with Tandberg would give it access to video conferencing technology aimed at the mid-market.

In addition, businesses wanting to save money on travel will invest significantly in collaboration and unified communications technology in the future according to commentators.