Cisco: Last Call For Tandberg Decision Now Dec. 3

The offer period was scheduled to end Tuesday, but the move to Dec. 3 marks the third time Cisco has extended the deadline. According to a statement, Cisco is giving Tandberg shareholders until Thursday to determine the 90 percent shareholder approval that would mark the acquisition's success.

Cisco said on Oct. 1 it intended to acquire Tandberg, which has a 40 percent market share in video conferencing, for $3.1 billion. The deal was initially stalled as a group of Tandberg shareholders representing 24 percent of Tandberg stock rebuffed Cisco for what they described as a too-low offer.

At the time, Cisco Chief Strategy Officer Ned Hooper suggested in a Cisco blog post that the networking titan had no plans to raise its offer and that it reflected "fairness and value." On Monday, Nov. 16, however, Cisco did an about-face and upped its offer for Tandberg by about $300 million, also extending the original November deadline to Dec. 1.

Acquiring Tandberg gives Cisco an instant leg up in the worldwide video conferencing market, which has seen significant consolidation this fall thanks to Cisco and also Logitech's acquisition of LifeSize Communications.

That consolidation marked one of the biggest stories in networking in 2009, with video promising to be a major area of focus for many networking and collaboration solution providers next year.