Arris’s pending $2.1 billion acquisition of U.K.-based Pace plc took a step forward Wednesday as shareholders stamped the deal.
At a special meeting of stockholders held today, the proposal was approved by stockholders holding 129,714,934 shares, representing approximately 88% of outstanding Arris shares as of the record date (September 10, 2015), with more than 99% of the shares voted at the meeting, Arris said.
Per English law, Pace is required to hold two special meetings to approve the scheme of arrangement -- a court-ordered meeting and a general meeting, both of which are scheduled to be held on October 22.
Arris now believes it won’t be able to close the deal until “late December or the first quarter of 2016” amid additional requests from the U.S. Department of Justice and regulators in Brazil and Colombia that could pave the way for conditions that Arris divest part of the optical transmission business of the combined company.
“We see the sale of the Pace transmission unit as the most logical scenario,” Raymond James analyst Simon Leopold said in a research note this week, noting that it would not represent a “show stopper.”
"We are pleased to complete another condition to the closing of the combination,” Arris chairmand and CEO Bob Stanzione said, in a statement. “ We continue to believe that our strong, complementary businesses provide expanded opportunities to support our customers and increase our speed of innovation as we collaborate to invent the future."
