Sorrento shrugs off an anonymous private equity group’s $1B offer to buy the company
San Diego-based Sorrento Therapeutics isn’t going the M&A route — at least not today.
The biotech caused quite a stir when it put out word a few weeks ago that an unidentified private equity group was bidding a billion dollars-plus for the company. The news drove a quick spike in the company’s share price as investors hooked up for the ride — that didn’t happen.
The update sparked a 5% drop in the share price $SRNE ahead of the bell. It’s now trading just above $4, without any evidence that the $7 price looked like it was firm.
Henry Ji Sorrento On Monday morning the company — which sued biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong over a bitter dispute involving a soured licensing pact — said the board had decided the company was worth more than what was on the table. They rejected the offer of “up to $7 a share.”
That’s typically not how biotech acquisitions are handled. But the company has found some unorthodox ways to keep its name in the headlines.
Last spring Sorrento CEO Henry Ji filed suit against Soong-Shiong to say that his 1.3 billion deal for Cynviloq was nothing more than a “catch-and-kill” swindle aimed at eliminating a competitor to Abraxane, which Soong-Shiong had developed and sold to Celgene.
For his part, Soong-Shiong blasted back that the whole lawsuit was meritless and he planned to fight back.
