Takeover fight between Cdn IT patent companies ends

31.10.2011
A takeover battle between two Canadian IT patent licencing companies is apparently over after WiLAN Inc. said it won't try to beat the offer of an American private equity firm for Mosaid Technologies Inc.

Ottawa-based WiLAN said Monday it won't go further than the CDN$42 a share offer it made for its cross-town rival Mosaid, which is substantially less than the CDN$46 a share offer -- a total of CDN$590 million for all outstanding shares -- from Sterling Partners that Mosaid's board accepted last week.

If the deal is confirmed by shareholders, the federal Competition Bureau and Industry Canada, which oversees foreign takeovers, Mosaid would be taken private.

Mosaid owns thousands of semiconductor memory and wireless patents. About 70 per cent of the $80.5 million in revenues from its last fiscal year came from memory licence fees, and the rest from wireless.

A spokesman for Mosaid said deal with Sterling shouldn't be seen as the loss of Canadian-owned intellectual property.

"The way to look at it is -- assuming the Sterling deal goes through -- we have a U.S. owner. The company remains headquartered in Ottawa, continues to do business as Mosaid with the current executive team remaining in place," said Michael Salter, Mosaid's senior director of investor relations and corporate communications.