Mitel Goes Public With $540 Million Offer for ShoreTel

Canadian telecommunications provider Mitel Networks made public its offer of about $540 million for smaller U.S. peer ShoreTel.

Mitel’s cash offer of $8.10 per share represents a 24 percent premium to ShoreTel stock’s closing price on Friday.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based ShoreTel’s shares were up more than 18 percent at $7.73 on heavy volumes in mid-day trading. They touched a high of $7.95 earlier.

Kanata, Ontario-based Mitel said it made its offer public after ShoreTel’s board rejected the proposal, sent on Oct. 2, and refused to engage with the company.

ShoreTel said on Monday it would review the proposal in consultation with its financial and legal advisers. The company confirmed the rejection of the offer earlier.

Mitel Chief Executive Richard McBee said a deal would bring together two companies “with strong and complementary market footprints, particularly in the U.S., where ShoreTel does more than 90 percent of its business.”

Mitel said its offer would remain open until Nov. 20.

Blackstone Advisory Partners is the financial adviser to ShoreTel.

Mitel in November bought smaller Canadian rival Aastra Technologies in a deal for $374 million to expand in Europe.

(Reporting by Narottam Medhora and Swetha Gopinath in Bangalore; Editing by Simon Jennings and Sriraj Kalluvila)

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple reasons that we can't rely only on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on.

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. We can’t do that if we have a paywall.

That’s why we also turn to you, our readers, to help us keep Vox free. If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via