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IDT and VoIP Enabler Net2Phone Agree to MergeTMCnet VoIP Minute Watch Columnist
International telecom IDT Corporation and VoIP enabler Net2Phone Inc. announced on Friday that they have decided to merge operations as of February 17, 2006, providing for the acquisition of Net2Phone by IDT.
According to the companies' news release, "under the terms and subject to conditions described in the merger agreement, NTOP Acquisition, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of IDT, would merge with and into Net2Phone, with Net2Phone continuing as the surviving corporation." If the merger is approved and completed, following the merger, Net2Phone will be a privately held, wholly-owned subsidiary of IDT, and shares of Net2Phone common stock will cease to be quoted on the Nasdaq National Market and will be deregistered under the Securities Exchange Act. The aggregate consideration payable in the merger would be approximately $28.1 million.
The transaction has been approved unanimously by both the Net2Phone board of directors, following the recommendation of the Independent Committee of the Net2Phone board of directors, and the IDT board of directors.
Today's news follows Net2Phone's recent announcement about being tapped by Quincy, Massachusetts-based cable television operator Atlantic Broadband to provide VoIP services. Atlantic Broadband's Phone Service and its Triple-Play package are now available in an area of central Pennsylvania, where it serves 145,000 subscribers.
Atlantic Broadband joins Net2Phone's managed VoIP system client roster which already includes Liberty CableVision of Puerto Rico, Bresnan Communications, Millennium Digital Media, Northland Communications and CMA Communications. The deal will make Net2Phone Atlantic Broadband's PacketCable integrator and telecom administration agent. Net2Phone will be in charge of deploying the telephony together with the Cedar Point SAFARI C3 Multimedia Switching System and the provisioning and management of the public switched telephony network (PSTN) elements including local, domestic and international long distance, operator services and directory assistance.
"Our partnership with Net2Phone has enabled us to effectively launch feature-rich, carrier-quality telephone service that gives us a significant advantage over our phone company and satellite competitors, neither of which can match our first-to-market Triple Play package in central Pennsylvania," said Atlantic Broadband CEO David Keefe.
Net2Phone
IDT Corporation
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Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet and Internet Telephony magazine. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit Johanne Torres' columnist page.
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