IP Telephony

IP Telephony Featured Article

IP telephony and IP presence solutions provider Mitel (News - Alert) said Thursday afternoon that its proposal to acquire and merge with business communications solutions company Inter-Tel was approved by Inter-Tel’s shareholders.

 

The deal has Mitel paying $724 million to acquire Inter-Tel (News - Alert). If the merger goes ahead as planned, Mitel will have 3,400 new employees located in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia and a worldwide distribution channel of about 1,500 value-added resellers, distributors and systems integrators covering more than 90 countries.

 

Mitel said in its announcement that it also expects to gain an additional $800 million-plus in annual revenue from Inter-Tel. The company sees the acquisition as a way to further strengthen its presence in the IP communications market serving small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

 

“Together, we believe that Mitel and Inter-Tel will possess the intellectual property, technology depth, breadth of portfolio, managed services, partnerships, and people to be a leader in the rapidly changing IP telephony landscape,” Mitel CEO Don Smith said in a Thursday statement to the press.

 

The deal remains subject to the outcome of a preliminary injunction hearing related to litigation Inter-Tel is involved with through the Delaware Court of Chancery. The two companies indicated, however, that following the hearing (scheduled for August 8), the merger is expected to move ahead in a timely manner.

 

Mitel and Inter-Tel first announced the proposed merger deal in April, at which time Inter-Tel entered into a definitive merger agreement based on Mitel’s specification that it would pay $25.60 in cash per share of Inter-Tel, for a total purchase price of about $723 million.