Sequenom gets hostile in Exact Sciences bid

Sequenom isn't taking 'no' for an answer to its bid to acquire Exact Sciences. The company announced this morning that its earlier offer to buy the cancer test developer--which had been rejected--is going hostile.

Late last week Sequenom, a provider of genetic analysis products, offered to pay $1.50 a share, or $41 million, in an all-stock deal for Exact Sciences. But that offer was unanimously spurned by Exact Science's board, which expressed its preference for an unspecified "alternative" strategy that would reward shareholders better. Sequenom will now take its $1.50 bid to investors, who saw their stock creep up to $1.57 on Tuesday.

"We are disappointed that the board of Exact Sciences has rejected our proposal," said Sequenom CEO Harry Stylli. "We have decided to move forward with the acquisition because Exact Sciences is essentially a shell with intellectual property assets, and we expect it would be straightforward to assimilate the assets into our operations with minimal near-term cash outlay and execution risk to our current initiatives."

- read the EXACT's rejection
- check out the AP story