Cisco has agreed to buy Norwegian videoconferencing company Tandberg for $3 billion, the latest

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in a series of bets taken on using

video to drive demand for its core data transmission gear.

The world’s dominant maker of Web routers and switches said buying Tandberg would strengthen its position in a $34-billion market for remote business collaboration tools and help it make underused videoconferencing more useful and less clumsy.

Cisco’s head of European markets, Chris Dedicoat, said the move would complement Cisco's high-end videoconferencing service TelePresence.

and its previous acquisition of online meeting company WebEx, expanding the number of customers it can reach.

"Tandberg has a large number of video endpoints," he told Reuters on Thursday. He added that he considered the offer of 153.5 crowns per share in cash, an 11 percent premium to Tandberg's Wednesday closing price, as fair to both parties.

Tandberg shares, which had almost doubled in value this year, helped by takeover speculation, were up another 11.6 percent at 154.40 Norwegian crowns by 1044 GMT.

"This sounds like a pretty good price so I would think it will end up there," said analyst Martin Hoff of Arctic Securities. "But the bid will stand for four weeks and there might be other (offers)."