ARRIS Group, Inc. recently announced that it has completed its acquisition offer for all issued shares of common stock of BigBand Networks, Inc. The equity acquisition ended at midnight on November 18, 2011. The tender offer for 67,103,577 shares of BigBand's common stock was valid and not withdrawn (including 728,324 shares tendered through guaranteed delivery), marking approximately 92.5% of the issued shares being acquired.
According to the "Merger Agreement and Plan" signed on October 10, 2011, ARRIS completed the acquisition of its wholly-owned subsidiary BigBand on November 21. During the validity period of the merger, all outstanding shares of common stock of BigBand (excluding shares held by ARRIS, BigBand, and their respective subsidiaries, as well as shares held by BigBand in accordance with Delaware law for the exercise of dissenters' rights) will be canceled and converted into cash at a rate of $2.24 per share, with no dividends and no withholding taxes deducted. Furthermore, the common stock of BigBand will cease trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market following the merger.
"We are pleased to announce the successful completion of the acquisition of BigBand, and we warmly welcome visionaries from around the world to join ARRIS. At the same time, I would like to sincerely thank the executive team at BigBand for their support during our efforts to merge the two companies," said Bob Stanzione, Chairman and CEO of ARRIS. "This acquisition will enable us to expand our existing video product suite, increase investment, and gradually achieve network convergence on an all-IP platform. The expansion of our product portfolio and the acquisition of new market channels will create greater opportunities for us to develop our customer base globally."