VANCOUVER - Telus Corp. (TSX:T), the country's second-largest telephone company behind Bell Canada, is declaring success in its $766-million takeover bid for Emergis Inc. (TSX:EME), a Montreal-based information technology company.
About 94 per cent of Emergis's shares were tendered to the offer, which expired Wednesday. Telus is paying $8.25 a share.
"We are very pleased with the strong acceptance of our offer," said Joe Natale, rresident of Telus Business Solutions, "and we welcome the Emergis team and its CEO Francois Cote to the Telus team.
"We look forward to helping lead the transformation of health care in Canada by providing advanced electronic health record, claims processing and pharmacy solutions. In addition, Emergis's strong suite of financial services solutions complements Telus's strength in the financial services sector."
Cote said the merger "is a great opportunity for our employees and for the customers of both our organizations."
Telus can buy all the remaining shares by compulsory acquisition. It then intends to delist Emergis's common shares from the Toronto Stock Exchange.
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