Canadian telecommunications company Telus announced on Tuesday that it will acquire the remaining stake in its digital services subsidiary through a $539 million cash-and-stock transaction, aimed at further expanding the company's artificial intelligence business capabilities.

Telus has proposed to acquire the remaining shares of Telus Digital that it does not already own at $4.50 per share and take the subsidiary private. Both parties stated that the total transaction valuation is approximately $2.9 billion.

Telus will gain full control of this information technology (IT) services digital subsidiary to better integrate the subsidiary's artificial intelligence and software technology capabilities.

Telus Digital shareholders can choose to receive consideration through any of the following methods: full cash payment of $4.50 per share, full stock payment of 0.273 Telus shares, or a combination of half cash and half stock. Telus noted that the total amount for stock payments is capped at 25% of the total transaction consideration, with any excess to be paid in cash.

Telus stated that in U.S. dollar terms, this acquisition offer represents a 52% premium over Telus Digital's unaffected closing price of $2.96 per share on June 11, and is also 32% higher than the company's initial offer of $3.40 per share first proposed on June 11.

Currently, this Canadian telecommunications company already holds approximately 86.9% of the voting rights in Telus Digital.

Both parties disclosed that Telus Digital's independent special committee has unanimously recommended the new transaction proposal, and its board of directors has also approved the transaction.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year.