“Now, since it holds over 95 percent of Gemalto’s shares, Thales has been following through on its statutory obligation to buy out the remaining shares in order to attain a 100 percent shareholding.”

Just a little over 97 percent of Gemalto shares have now been tendered to Thales‘ acquisition offer, the companies have announced.

It’s an unsurprising state of affairs, given that as of the March 28th deadline for Gemalto shareholders to accept Thales’ offer, 85.58 percent of the shares had been tendered, essentially sealing the merger deal. A post-closing acceptance period followed, concluding on April 15th.

Now, since it holds over 95 percent of Gemalto’s shares, Thales has been following through on its statutory obligation to buy out the remaining shares in order to attain a 100 percent shareholding. Meanwhile, the Euronext pan-European exchange has accepted Thales’ and Gemalto’s joint request that Gemalto’s shares be delisted, effective May 29th.

It’s all so much settling dust after a long acquisition process that has ultimately seen the merger of two of the world’s largest security firms, with Gemalto and Thales together representing a major proportion of the global Hardware Security Modules market. Having acquired Gemalto, Thales now boasts of a workforce of 80,000 employees and annual R&D spending of about €1 billion.