Alcatel-Lucent grants more time for Motive to make up its mind

Alcatel-Lucent has extended its tender offer to purchase US software company Motive yet again, stretching the offer into its fifth month.

In early August, Alcatel-Lucent had collected approximately 27 million shares in Motive, but its tender offer was set to expire, and had to be renewed if any deal was to proceed.

Motive had already agreed to be sold to Alcatel-Lucent in June, and filed a document with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in early July that valued the transaction at just over $76 million or about $2.23 per share. At that time, there were about four million shares still outstanding.

Motive will eventually be integrated into Lucent, the American arm of the French-American merged telecommunications company. Alcatel-Lucent and Motive have worked together since 2005, and have developed enterprise-level networks and related remote access solutions for at least 40 major clients, such as AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, and Vodafone.

In June, Motive chairman and CEO Alfred Mockett said, "Alcatel-Lucent and Motive have a complementary worldwide footprint of customers and partners, and a history of working together to help ensure the success of our joint customers. With this acquisition, Motive gains access to capital, technology and people necessary to deliver on our commitments and ensure a secure future for our customers."

Since extending the offer in August, only about 1.6 million of the remaining 4 million shares have been tendered. The current offer will expire on October 6.