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| Life's Ion Torrent sequencing platform. Wall Street excitement has priced the company too high for any of its suitors.--Courtesy of Life |
With rumors swirling of a potential sale, Life Technologies' ($LIFE) shares have soared more than 30% this year, but now all that Wall Street excitement has priced the company too high for any of its suitors, Reuters reports.
Thermo Fisher ($TMO) was high in the running to buy Life, Reuters sources say, but that was when a deal around $12 billion represented a premium on Life's share price. Now that the company has reached about $64 per share, Thermo's not so sure it wants to up its offer to sway the company's board, according to the news service.
Same goes for the private equity giants keeping tabs on Life. Reuters says Blackstone, Bain, TPG and others have put in bids for the sequencing giant, but they all value the company at its current trading price. So unless they're willing to up their offers, Life is unlikely to accept anything they can muster.
With Life's recent Street success, Credit Suisse figures any viable buyout offer will have to be in the range of $75 per share, valuing the company at about $15.7 billion.
Meanwhile, Life posted a 3% revenue jump in the last quarter, riding an increase in demand for its Ion Torrent sequencing platform to a $999 million sales quarter. For 2013, Life projects growth of 3% to 5%, good for between $3.9 billion and $4 billion.
- read the Reuters story