Cisco Clears DOJ, EC Hurdles For Tandberg Acquisition

In addition, the European Commission (EC) also said Monday that it had cleared Cisco to complete the transaction.

In a statement, the Department of Justice said the "proposed deal is not likely to be anticompetitive due to the evolving nature of the videoconferencing market and the commitments that Cisco has made to the European Commission to facilitate interoperability."

Cisco's acqusition of Tandberg vaults the networking titan into the top market share position for video conferencing, assuming as most analyst projections do that Tandberg commands 40 percent of the worldwide market. According to the DOJ's Antitrust Division, Cisco's acquisition of Tandberg is "a positive development that likely will enhance competition among producers of telepresence systems."

Cisco announced plans to acquire Tandberg in October, and in December confirmed it had control of enough Tandberg shares to complete the acquisition, despite two months of pushback from some Tandberg shareholders over a perceived lowball offer.

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Cisco has yet to describe how it will fully integrate Tandberg's products and channel programs into its overall organization, but in February reaffirmed plans to form a Cisco TelePresence Technology Group that will house all of its telepresence and video systems, and also said it would make Tandberg's sales and channel organization a specialist team within Cisco.

Cisco's planned acquisition of Tandberg kicked off the latest round of consolidation in the video conferencing market, which also saw LifeSize Communications snapped up by Logitech.

Polycom, Tandberg's principal rival in the video space with a roughly 34 percent worldwide market share, has itself been doubling down on channel investments and strategic alliances, including strengthening its ties to Cisco rival HP.

Reports continue to swirl that Polycom will be acquired, and the latest speculation has Siemens Enterprise Communications majority owner The Gores Group kicking the tires on a possible merger.