RADVISION signs definitive merger agreement with Avaya

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL: RADVISION has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Avaya, a global provider of business communications and collaboration systems and services. Pursuant to the merger agreement, Avaya will acquire RADVISION for cash of $11.85 per share and RADVISION will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Avaya.

The transaction is valued at approximately $230 million. The cash per share represents a premium of approximately 57 percent over the company's average closing share price during the 90 trading days ended March 14, 2012. The payment will be made to RADVISION shareholders at the time of the closing, without interest and less applicable withholding tax.

The transaction, which has been approved by the Board of Directors of both companies, is subject to the approval of RADVISION shareholders, and customary closing conditions. In the upcoming days, RADVISION will call an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders to vote on the merger. The transaction requires the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the ordinary shares present (in person or by proxy) at the meeting and voting on such matter (not including abstentions and broker non-votes). The Board of Directors of RADVISION has recommended that RADVISION shareholders vote in favor of the transaction.

There is no financing condition to the obligations of Avaya to consummate the transaction and it is currently anticipated that the transaction will be consummated within 90 days. Upon the closing of the transaction, RADVISION shares would no longer be traded on NASDAQ or the TASE. Holders of an aggregate of approximately 34 percent of RADVISION's outstanding shares have entered into voting agreements with Avaya under which they have agreed to vote their shares in favor of the transaction.

Boaz Raviv, RADVISION CEO, said: “For the past 20 years, the expertise, innovation and commitment of our team has established RADVISION as a major leader in the development of videoconferencing technology and solutions. This strategic merger will now combine two industry leaders with a shared passion and vision for creating the most advanced, fully interoperable, high performance/value and easiest-to-use unified communications solutions for a mobile and distributed workforce available to enterprises and service providers today. Joining forces with Avaya will deepen our resources, extend the scope of our channel relationships and make us a formidable competitor in the unified communications marketplace. We are convinced that this is the best way to fully unleash the power of our technology and the talents of our employees while providing substantial value to our shareholders.”

“The opportunity for personal workspace is now, and customers demand a rich, collaborative user experience that is interoperable and easy to use,” said Kevin Kennedy, president and CEO, Avaya. “In addition, we believe this transaction will leverage a highly-skilled, incredibly talented and experienced workforce ready to deliver video to enterprise customers. With this acquisition we will seek to extend videoconferencing to any device, anytime, anywhere, making it as easy as a phone call, seizing the opportunity to deliver a fully-integrated solution and architecture that we believe sets us apart from the competition.”

The RADVISION portfolio provides a full range of video conferencing products, technologies and expertise, serving enterprises, small business, and service providers. It includes standards-based applications, open infrastructure and endpoints for ad-hoc and scheduled video conferencing for room-based systems, desktop, and mobile/consumer devices. The integrated Avaya and RADVISION portfolios will extend intra-company business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) video communications that support the bring-your-own-device (BYOD).

Combined with Avaya’s open Avaya Aura architecture, RADVISION’s SCOPIA portfolio and expertise will bridge existing H.323 communications networks and SIP-based environments, delivering scalability that is intuitive and easy-to-operate.