Bygcland

Yep, I talked to our local Mitel Dealer here in Houston. She says not much will change, but you never know.

rixride

VoIP Vendors Merge in $732 Million Deal




By Jennifer Hagendorf Follett, CRN
6:53 PM EDT Thu. Apr. 26, 2007
Mitel Networks on Thursday unveiled plans to acquire Inter-Tel in a $732 million deal that will double the telecommunications vendor's revenue. The acquisition will create a privately-held IP communications vendor with over $800 million in sales, twice the revenue Mitel has today, the Ottowa, Ontario-based company said in a statement.
The combined company will have a portfolio that targets SMB and enterprise customers with a range of VoIP, unified communications, networking, management products, including communications applications such as messaging, contact center, mobility and collaboration.
The deal will take Inter-Tel, Tempe, Ariz., off the public market. It also signals the end of Mitel's plans to issue an initial public offering.
"Having rapidly achieved the next step in our long-term growth plans with this merger, we will for the near-term, withdraw Mitel from the IPO registration process," said Don Smith, CEO of Mitel, in the statement.
As a result of the acquisition, which is expected to close in the third quarter, Mitel solution providers will have access to a broad set of Inter-Tel managed services, while Inter-Tel partners stand to benefit from Mitel's broad, global reach, Smith said.
"Inter-Tel's achievements, particularly in North America, include creating successful managed service offerings that we intend to extend to Mitel's resellers and customers worldwide," Smith said. "Mitel's scalable solutions and broad geographic reach will drive growth in the large enterprise sector, complementing recent moves by Inter-Tel to expand its addressable market. We believe the merger will deliver value to customers, channel partners, employees and shareholders while making us the clear choice for new clients."
Inter-Tel on Thursday reported first-quarter earnings of $2.6 million, or 10 cents per share, down from earnings of $3.2 million, or 12 cents per share, for the same quarter a year ago. Sales for the quarter rose slightly to $109.5 million, up from $106.9 million a year ago.
Mitel has agreed to acquire Inter-Tel for $25.60 per share, for a total purchase price of approximately $723 million. The transaction is being funded by a combination of equity and debt. Francisco Partners is leading the equity portion with participation by Morgan Stanley Principal Investments, while debt funding is being arranged by Morgan Stanley on behalf of Mitel.
Both companies' boards have approved the deal, which is subject to the approval of Inter-Tel shareholders and regulatory approvals.
Shares of Inter-Tel closed down 17 cents at $23.79 Thursday prior to the announcement.

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rixride

wonder what the new name will be?

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jakuk

well as it's a merger, they'll probably keep a bit of both

may be the "Mi" from Mitel and the "tel" from Inter-Tel?


just a thought

Bygcland

that's hilarious!!!!

maybe they will name "SuperTelecom".....

ITEngineer

More like a personal vengence to sell the company to anyone but Steve Mihaylo. I hoped that Vector Capital would buy the company and do what needs to be done, but...... Someone at Inter-Tel should have there lower regions removed for what they have done, but this is just my opinion.

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jakuk

its got worse the reconcile plan put forward by Steve has been dismissed, so its now up to the shareholders to vote against (or not vote) on the 29th
Looking through the shareholder forms, i saw an interesting part where Inter-Tel have agreed not to look for any other bids, now thats hardly in the best interests of the shareholders...

more like in the best interest of the board, many of whom will do very nicely out of this merger

ITEngineer

I am not fooled by the antics of the board, they are looking to do two things... 1. Make a bunch of money. 2. Most importantly they are looking to put the screws to Steve, this is personal for them.

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jakuk

I suppose it wasnt a huge surprise but for those that didnt know . Inter-Tel's board of directors decided to postpone the meeting of shareholders until 23rd July

The reason was that they wanted to give the shareholders additional time to make their minds up

and Im sure that this was in no way influenced by the fact that they were going to lose the vote under the rules of who was eligible to vote, but by postponing it they are allowing who can vote to now include a lot of the banks etc who only recently purchased shares so as to make some quick cash

Hopefully people will heed Steve's press release and still vote against