Silence says it's been approached by mystery suitor

London-based Silence Therapeutics says an unnamed suitor has made an overture that could lead to a buyout offer--the second time in the last year that Silence has discussed a potential deal with a mystery party. The RNAi company's shares jumped 76 percent on the news, rising to 12.6 pence after trading at a lean-and-mean 5 pence just a few weeks ago.

Last fall, Silence announced a merger with Intradigm, a Palo Alto, CA-based RNAi company it acquired in an all-stock deal valued at $25 million. Silence Therapeutics has an ambitious development deal in place with AstraZeneca. It also inked a deal with Japan's Dainippon Sumitomo last January.

"A further announcement will be made in due course," the developer notes in a terse release.

- read the Silence release
- check out Reuters' perspective
- here's the Bloomberg report