Siemens Canada Ltd. has reached a friendly takeover deal worth about $382 million with Canada's RuggedCom Inc. Siemens' agreement to pay $33 cash per common share bests a hostile bid by Belden Inc. to acquire the smart-grid technology maker for $22 per share or $280 million. Concord, Ont.-based RuggedCom's board had earlier urged shareholders not to accept the bid from the St. Louisbased electrical component maker and adopted a poison pill plan to allow time to search for other offers. RuggedCom said the Siemens offer is a premium of 142 per cent to its share closing price on the TSX on Dec. 16, the last trading day before Belden announced its unsolicited bid.
A defence lawyer for former Nortel Networks Corp chief executive Frank Dunn clashed with a company auditor Thursday over whether Nortel sought to conceal...