JSM Financial: Apax walks away from Polycom buy.

March 24, 2010 - PRLog -- London headquartered private equity company Apex Partners has ended talks to buy U.S. videoconferencing firm Polycom Inc. after months of negotiations, JSM Financial believes sources close to the matter have said.

According to reports Apax had been in talks with Polycom since November of last year to buy the firm for more than $3 billion, but undisclosed sources say that while discussions did take place Apex never made a fixed offer.

JSM Financial believes that while no clear reason has been given as to why the talks have ended there is speculation that the recent rise in the Polycom share price may have made it far more expensive for Apax to buy outright after the stock recently reached  $34.14, about  60% higher than its November 2009 low point. Shares of Polycom fell almost 7% after the news that the talks had ended.

There has been a lot of acquisition activity recently in the videoconferencing which is widely seen as a key growth area as companies try to cut travel costs and lower their carbon footprints.

JSM Financial has also learned that the acquisition by giant networking company Cisco Systems Inc of Polycom’s Norwegian competitor, Tandberg ASA has been verified and the deal is set to create the globe’s largest videoconferencing company.

Polycom is believed to be focusing on expanding partnerships to fight off the new Cisco-Tandberg giant.

Analysts have said that Polycom may still be attractive to other potential buyers, such as private equity firm Silver Lake Partners or Hewlett-Packard Co, with whom Polycom already has a strategic partnership.

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