The vast majority of shareholders of Canadian communications equipment maker RuggedCom Inc. have tendered their stock to a takeover offer from Siemens Canada Inc.
Siemens said Friday that 97.6 per cent of the shares of RuggedCom were tendered to its $33-a-share offer by the Thursday evening deadline. Siemens will now move to buy the rest of the shares under the "compulsory acquisition" rules available to it.
RuggedCom makes switches and network routers that are designed for messy places, such as power substations, oil refineries and roadside traffic control boxes. Its revenues grew steadily in the last few years to about $100-million a year, as it carved out a new niche in the "smart grid" business – the real-time control and monitoring of electrical transmission networks.
Siemens, which is paying about $400-million for RuggedCom, has promised to keep the Canadian company intact, while giving it access to the German company's massive international operations.
RuggedCom initially drew a hostile $22-a share bid in December from St. Louis-based cable maker Belden Inc., but it rejected that offer. In January Siemens emerged as a white night with a much richer offer that got the endorsement of the RuggedCom board.