Mitel Goes Public With $540 Million Offer for ShoreTel

Canadian telecommunications provider Mitel Networks made public its offer of about $540 million for smaller U.S. peer ShoreTel.

Mitel’s cash offer of $8.10 per share represents a 24 percent premium to ShoreTel stock’s closing price on Friday.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based ShoreTel’s shares were up more than 18 percent at $7.73 on heavy volumes in mid-day trading. They touched a high of $7.95 earlier.

Kanata, Ontario-based Mitel said it made its offer public after ShoreTel’s board rejected the proposal, sent on Oct. 2, and refused to engage with the company.

ShoreTel said on Monday it would review the proposal in consultation with its financial and legal advisers. The company confirmed the rejection of the offer earlier.

Mitel Chief Executive Richard McBee said a deal would bring together two companies “with strong and complementary market footprints, particularly in the U.S., where ShoreTel does more than 90 percent of its business.”

Mitel said its offer would remain open until Nov. 20.

Blackstone Advisory Partners is the financial adviser to ShoreTel.

Mitel in November bought smaller Canadian rival Aastra Technologies in a deal for $374 million to expand in Europe.

(Reporting by Narottam Medhora and Swetha Gopinath in Bangalore; Editing by Simon Jennings and Sriraj Kalluvila)

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.