Three brief items

Let us update three matters that we've left dangling.

1. Cisco and Tandberg. On Wednesday, December 2, I wrote here that Cisco Systems had extended the offer period in its effort to acquire Tandberg, a Norway based company.

Apparently, Cisco soon thereafter won its prize. That link will also give you a tick-tock on the whole courtship.

2. Cadbury. This one is still up in the air. The relevant trade union is unhappy with the idea of Kraft taking over. On the other hand, Kraft's interest has attracted other bidders, and it seems likely Cadbury will lose its independence to somebody, although the question "to whom?" remains unanswered.

The European Commission has given itself until January 6 to study the matter.

3. MRV Communications. Back in early October I told you that MRV, the California based networking-ethernet company, was going to hold an annual shareholder meeting on November 11, and it would face a proxy challenge at that time. So ... what happened?

The two sides kissed and made up, that's what. Spencer Capital secured an agreement from the company that three of the board members would resign on the day of the annual meeting: Furchtgott-Roth, Jaensch, and Tsui. In return, Lotan, Margalit, Fischer, Herman, Keane, and Shidlovsky would all be re-elected without opposition. So there are three new faces on the board: Charles M. Gillman, Michael J. McConnell and Kenneth H. Shubin Stein.

Intriguingly, one of the three winners who has been put out to pasture in this way, Daniel Tsui, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1998, for the discovery of "a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations,"