Enterasys shareholder vote set

Shareholders in Enterasys Networks will get to vote whether to sell their company to private investors on Feb. 14, the company announced on Tuesday.

If approved, shareholders will receive a total of $13.92 a share, higher than the $10.27 price offered in November when the merger was first announced as well as the $13.44 per-share price offered on Jan. 13, before the shareholder meeting date was announced.

All regulatory hurdles have been cleared, so it will up to slightly less than 5,000 shareholders of record as of Jan. 13 – holding more than 27 million shares – to approve the $386 million sale to The Gores Group LLC and Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC.

Gores previously bought Aprisma Technologies — which, like Enterasys was one of four spin-off companies of the former Cabletron Systems.

Some Enterasys stockholders are insisting that the company should hold out for a better deal, especially given the company’s recent projections for fourth-quarter revenue and gross profit were $91 million and $48 million, respectively.

A class action lawsuit contesting the deal has been filed in Delaware Chancery Court against the company. But with the board members united behind the proposal, and most institutional investors expect to be on board, most observers think Enterasys will become a privately held company.

If confirmed, shareholders should be receiving their checks about two weeks after completion of the merger, which should take place sometime before the end of this quarter, according to the filing. – BOB SANDERS