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Cross Border Activity - April 2008

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Cross border financing in April 2008 saw a Toronto-based online video and media distributor receive financing from a U.S. Private Equity firm. Reported M&A activity consisted of one-way transactions, as was the case for a Toronto-based private technology company that was acquired by a public U.S. information technology company.

Details of April’s cross-border activity are listed below.

U.S. Activity in Canada

VFM Interactive Inc. (Toronto), the online video and rich media producer and distributor for the hotel and travel industry, completed a $13.5 million financing to support its ongoing expansion. Lake Capital (Chicago), a private equity firm that invests exclusively in service-based companies, led the investment which also included investments from existing shareholders JLA Ventures (Toronto) and Centiva Capital (Toronto).

Riverstone Holdings LLC (New York), a private equity firm focused exclusively on the energy sector, provided capital to fund the growth of Shelter Bay Energy (Saskatchewan), Inc., a privately held exploration and production company. Riverstone was joined by Kelso & Company (New York), Crescent Point Energy Trust (Alberta), Goldman Sachs, and Trafelet & Company (New York). Shelter Bay closed $625 million in private placement financing.


Cross Border M&A

Harris Corporation (Florida) (NYSE: HRS), an international communications and information technology company, acquired the assets of Desktopbox (Toronto), a technology firm that offers a real-time Internet broadcasting platform that enables synchronization between a television or radio broadcast and an automatic PC browser Web-page broadcast. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Sonus Networks (Massachusetts) (NASDAQ: SONS) acquired Atreus Systems (Ottawa) for an undisclosed sum. Sonus is a supplier of IP communications infrastructure for wireline and wireless service providers.

Xtera Communications (Texas) acquired Meriton Networks (Ottawa). Xtera supplies optical, IP performance and service solutions to terrestrial and sub-sea global service providers with development, sales and support offices around the world. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. (Quebec) (NASDAQ: EXFO; TSX: EXF) signed an agreement to acquire all the shares of Brix Networks (Massachusetts), a global provider of open and extensible converged service assurance solutions. The total purchase price could reach US$37.5 million, including a maximum earn-out and other acquisition-related costs.

Icera Inc. (United Kingdom), a provider of silicon solutions for next generation mobile data devices, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Sirific Wireless (Texas), a fabless semiconductor company specializing in advanced CMOS RF transceivers. Sirific has design facilities in Waterloo, Ontario Canada.

Vansco Electronics (Manitoba), makers of electronics components for buses, agricultural equipment, trucks and other machinery was acquired by Parker Hannifin Corp. (Ohio), a multi-national maker of motion and control technologies for customers around the world. Terms and conditions of the deal were not disclosed.