Exact Sciences has rebuffed an offer from San Diego-based Sequenom to buy the company, saying it would seek additional offers that promised better value for the company’s shareholders.
In a brief statement Jan. 12, Massachusetts-based Exact Sciences said it was pursuing a “strategic alternative” that its board feels offers more for the company.
Sequenom, a San Diego-based genetics test maker, offered to buy Exact Sciences Corp. Jan. 9 in an all-stock deal valued at $41 million.
The Sequenom deal valued shares of Exact Sciences at $1.50, representing a 51 percent premium over their value at the time.
The Massachusetts-based company owns a technology that allows doctors to identify colon cancer from genetic markers in a patient’s stool. But the company has struggled to sell its colon cancer test, sold by diagnostics firm LabCorp, and has seen its stock drop off from $3 highs a year ago to about $1.
Sequenom executives said the acquisition would allow the company to expand into non-invasive genetic cancer screening.
, Heather Chambers
