Mitel and Aastra Merger Nearing Completion

Previously announced Mitel Networks Corporation and Aastra (News - Alert) Technologies Limited merger is nearing completion.

In a market update, Mitel, a global provider of unified communications and collaboration (UCC) software, solutions and services and Aastra, a global company at the forefront of the enterprise communication market, confirmed that the parties now expect to close the transaction on or about January 31, 2014, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of remaining closing conditions.

In December, Mitel (News - Alert) and Aastra had announced that, in accordance with the Investment Canada Act, the Minister of Industry had approved the proposed merger of the companies, which was announced on November 11, 2013. The Minister's approval was a key requirement for the transaction and represents a significant milestone toward finalizing the merger.

Officials with Mitel said that in conjunction with the transaction, the company has received term loan and revolving credit facility commitments from Jefferies Finance LLC and the Toronto-Dominion Bank of up to $405 million to both refinance its existing first lien and second lien credit facilities and to assist in financing the cash consideration for the merger with Aastra.

Mitel expects to complete this financing concurrently with the merger.

Earlier in November, Nortech announced that it has launched new cloud communications and collaboration solutions with Mitel in Scandinavia. Based on Mitel's MiCloud technology, the white label service is now available to resellers, systems integrators and carriers in Sweden and Norway with plans to expand into other Scandinavian markets.

Powered by Mitel, the Nortech cloud solution was introduced to more than 40 resellers at a recent event in Stockholm. Swedish carrier Phonera is among the first to offer the flexible cloud solutions, expanding on its own business solutions for its customers.

Nortech hosts the MiCloud solution on its data center infrastructure with redundancy for business continuity. Mitel partners are able to offer the Nortech services to their customers with an attractive pay-per-usage model. The solution is designed to offer ideal support for mobile workers and allows individual customers to select their devices – from mobile to desktop – for the Nortech services.