KPN finally gets the rest of iBasis - Top Telecom M&As for 2009

KPN's drive to purchase its remaining stake in Burlington, Ma.-based voice wholesaler this year did not come without its fare share of drama.  

The drama began this summer when the Dutch telco offered [1] $1.55 per share in cash to increase its equity ownership from 56 to 100 percent in iBasis.  

KPN and iBasis previously came together in 2007 when KPN decided to merge [2] its international wholesale voice business (KPN Global Carrier Services) with iBasis. 

Immediately after KPN put its deal on the table, iBasis' management and board of directors, feeling like they were being low balled, turned down the offer.  

What transpired from there was a multi-month battle between the two service providers.  

In August, iBasis filed lawsuit in the State of Delaware's Chancery against Royal KPN N.V arguing that KPN committed fraud and breached fiduciary duties to iBasis and its minority stockholders. KPN, in turn, filed a countersuit claiming that iBasis' lawsuit was nothing more than a "poison pill" to block the deal.  

KPN followed the legal debacle with a revised offer [3] of $2.25 per share in cash for the outstanding shares in October, an offer that iBasis again turned down.  

But the battle ended in late November when iBasis' approved [4] KPN's $3.00 per share offer.