Ericsson’s $6.2 billion acquisition of Vonage is getting delayed. In a statement, Ericsson said it’s working toward a closing before the end of July.
At the time the deal was announced last year, the expectation was the deal would close in the first half of 2022, so it’s only about a month later than planned.
Ericsson said it continues to work closely with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is reviewing the proposed acquisition. The merger has cleared all other requisite foreign and U.S. regulatory approval requirements, the company said.
The acquisition of New Jersey-based Vonage would be the Swedish vendor’s biggest acquisition to date. Vonage was founded in 2001 as a VoIP provider for consumers and grew into a cloud communications provider focused on businesses. In 2020, it reported revenues of $1.25 billion.
Analysts previously said they expected further delays in the transaction due to ongoing investigations related to Ericsson’s conduct in Iraq. The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opened investigations tied to the bribery scandal in Iraq.
In February, Ericsson said it conducted its own internal investigation and found no evidence that any Ericsson employee was directly involved in financing terrorist organizations. Some analysts estimate the company could face fines in the range of $100 million to $300 million.