TANDBERG ASA, the Norwegian maker of video-conferencing equipment, said yesterday that it had received an approach from a private-equity company and started "preliminary discussions" about a possible bid.

Tandberg didn't identify the potential bidder, Bloomberg News reported. The company has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co to advise it, Tandberg said in a statement. There could be no certainty that an actual bid would be made and talks were "at an early stage," Tandberg said. Tandberg's stock surged 16 percent yesterday, giving it a market value of 12.9 billion kroner (US$2.4 billion).

A buyer would gain a company with products including Internet telephony and conferencing equipment used by clients in the energy, finance and health-care industries. Tandberg spun off some divisions several years ago, including Tandberg Television ASA, a maker of video compressing equipment that was bought by Ericsson AB last year. Tandberg Data ASA is still listed in Oslo.

"Many of the financial shareholders who have been shareholders for some time view Tandberg as significantly undervalued and expect a realistic bid to be a great deal above today's share price," Arctic Securities analyst Martin Hoff said. An acquisition of Tandberg would be unlikely below a level of 140 kroner a share, he said.

Tandberg rose as much as 20.5 kroner, or 21 percent, to 118.5 kroner in Oslo, and traded at 113.5 kroner as of 9:56am yesterday.

The unidentified bidder may also trigger interest for Tandberg from other suitors, including Cisco Systems Inc or Hewlett-Packard Co, Hoff said yesterday.