Inverness Sweetens Offer for Biosite

Biosite Inc. on Thursday said Inverness Medical Innovations Inc. has raised its offer to acquire Biosite to $92.50 a share, surpassing a competing offer from Beckman Coulter Inc. by $2.50 a share, or 2.7%.

Biosite, a San Diego maker of medical-testing devices, last week agreed to Beckman Coulter’s $90 a share bid. Beckman Coulter said at the time that it expected the $1.67 billion acquisition to close shortly.

Biosite said it is evaluating Inverness’ offer, which was announced late Wednesday.

Inverness gave Biosite a deadline of 5 p.m., Pacific Daylight Time, Thursday to declare Inverness’ offer superior to Beckman Coulter’s offer.

In late March, Fullerton, Calif.-based Beckman Coulter agreed to buy Biosite for $85 a share. But Inverness Medical, a Waltham, Mass., maker of diagnostic devices and pregnancy tests, emerged in April with a competing $90 a share offer. Beckman eventually raised its Biosite offer to $90 a share.

Biosite said it received the latest offer in a letter, accompanied by a merger agreement signed by Inverness and copies of signed commitment letters from Inverness’ proposed financing sources.

In premarket trading, Biosite shares were at $94.10, up 10 cents from Wednesday’s close. Beckman and Inverness both were inactive in pre-market dealings. Beckman closed at $64.46, down 12 cents and Inverness finished trading up $1.16 to $40.23.

SOURCE: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL