DealZone

Cisco says it has 84 percent of the Norwegian videoconferencing company and is more likely to pull the offer than raise it. And the giant U.S. router maker will probably settle for something less than the 90 percent it had said it would need to trigger the takeover.

Analysts say Cisco will gain operational control of Tandberg at the current acceptance level, limiting the influence of minority owners. Cisco is extremely acquisitive and has a premier class of dealmakers on its M&A staff. The company’s brain trust checkmated Tandberg with four moves: three deadline extensions and an increase in the offer price of 10 percent. That appears to have been as effective as it needed to be. The original offer was rejected by more than 90 percent of Tandberg shareholders.

Tandberg holds 40 percent of the mid-tier market for videoconferencing, according to Wainhouse Research. Cisco CEO John Chambers has said online videoconferencing is a key growth area that is on the brink of more widespread adoption. High-quality, real-time videoconferencing can help companies cut travel costs, and Cisco believes it can do more, such as helping businesses like retailers, banks and hospitals launch services from remote locations.

Cisco says more than 40 percent of Tandberg shareholders are backing its bid for the Norwegian group now that Cisco has raised its offer to value the group at $3.4 billion.

Canon plans to buy Dutch copier and printer maker Oce for $1.1 billion. For these, and other merger Monday stories, click here.

And here’s what we found of interest in other media.

U.S. investment bank J.P. Morgan will offer 500 to 525 pence per share to buy out the 50 percent stake it does not already own in its UK stockbroker joint venture with Cazenove, according to media reports, such as in the Financial Times.

Maybe it’s time to add a new weapon to the old M&A arsenal of poison pills, dawn raids, and white knights — the corporate blog. You could call it the WordPress Hug.

Late on Monday, Cisco’s Ned Hooper used the company’s blog to insist it had offered “a very good price” for Tandberg, after some shareholders of the Norwegian videoconferencing company said the price was too low. (See his full post here.)

The “Driving Conversations” blog of General Motors Europe has also been a source of news on the long-running (and now abandoned) talks to sell Opel, hosting posts from GM’s chief negotiator, John Smith. (See some of his posts on the topic here.)

Acquisitive by nature, with a famed M&A team at hand and a couple of different bids already in the market, Cisco Systems is no stranger to stakeholders in its takeover targets trying to get a better deal. So news that investors holding 24 percent of the shares in videoconferencing firm Tandberg have snubbed Cisco’s $3 billion bid shouldn’t rattle the company too much.

A Norwegian analyst figured it was possible Cisco might raise its 153.50 crowns-per-share bid by 11 percent. But investors aren’t nearly as optimistic about Cisco opening up its wallet or a rival bidder emerging. Tandberg shares are hovering at only about a crown above Cisco’s offer price, even after the call to arms from existing shareholders.

The one-month tender period for Tandberg shareholders began on Oct. 9, and Cisco needs acceptances from at least 90 percent of shareholders to fully acquire the company. Analysts say it could opt for a smaller stake if the price for the whole company isn’t right.

Cisco Systems plans to buy advanced wireless equipment maker Starent Networks Corp for $2.9 billion to boost its product offerings as phone carriers build out next generation networks, Reuters reports.

In other stories on Wednesday:

Royal Bank of Scotland Group is considering a government-backed plan to give up all 312 of its RBS-branded branches in England and Wales in a move to satisfy European authorities, the Financial Times says.

Las Vegas Sands, which is seeking to raise up to $2.5 billion by listing its Macau assets on the Hong Kong stock exchange, could launch the initial public offering by late November, the South China Morning Post reports.

Dell is looking to hire an M&A chief, The Wall Street Journal reports, adding that the computer maker has been interviewing “investment banking and technology industry veterans” for the newly created executive position, and could announce a hire within the next month.

Two bankers have told me in the past few weeks this is the case. One Silicon Valley banker said Dell has been trying to fill the position for quite a while, but no M&A banker worth his or her salt wants to join the company, which is notorious for lagging behind on acquisitions, even as rivals like Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and IBM go forth and acquire every few months.

“Joining Dell is basically as good as saying goodbye to your M&A career,” said a banker who has received feelers from the Round Rock, Texas-based company.

Cisco's $590 million all-stock purchase of Flip video camera maker Pure Digital last week may sound like a nice price for the venture capital-backed company, especially given the non-existent exit market right now.

But Venture Capital Journal editor Larry Aragon writes in a PEHub blog post that the $590 million number doesn't sound that meaty when you calculate the return on investment for Pure Digital's venture capital backers. And that's especially true because some top-notch VC firms like Benchmark Capital and Sequoia Capital have invested in Pure Digital. (Venture Capital Journal and PEHub are part of Thomson Reuters.)

Aragon calculates that if Pure Digital's VC investors put in about $95 million, and assuming that they own about half the company (since it's a stock deal), "that's a return of just over 3x their money."