France-based Schneider Electric and North Kingstown-based American Power Conversion Corp. today (Oct. 30) announced they have entered entered into a definitive merger agreement.
Schneider Electric (Paris: SU.PA) is to acquire all outstanding shares of APC (Nasdaq: APCC) for $31 per share in cash, the companies said. The total transaction is valued at about $6.1 billion.
The combination of the two businesses is expected to create an industry leading business for single-phase and three-phase uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems and a preeminent provider of integrated systems for IT and data center applications, APC said in its news release.
“This transaction provides APC stockholders with an immediate and substantial cash premium for their investment in the company,” said Rob Johnson, APC’s president and CEO. “Upon completion of the transaction, APC will become part of Schneider Electric.”
Johnson said this merger will provide “greater resources to accomplish our long-term plans, which will be favorable to our employees, customers, business partners and suppliers worldwide.”
APC’s board of directors has approved the transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2007. The board plans to recommend to APC’s shareholders that they approve the transaction as well, its news release said.
Approval from Schneider Electric’s shareholders is not required.
Meanwhile, APC is to report its 2006 third quarter earnings at 5 p.m. Thursday (Nov. 2) via the investor-information portion of the company’s Web site, at investor.apcc.com.
The company’s third-quarter conference call, at 5 p.m. Thursday, will be broadcast live at the same site, and also will be availabe live at (913) 981-4912. Starting at about 8 that night, and running through midnight on Nov. 10, a replay will be available by dialing (719) 457-0820 and entering access code 7254647.
