General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) healthcare unit GE Healthcare today began buying up shares of Clarient Inc. (NSDQ:CLRT), kicking off its cash tender offer for the molecular diagnostics firm.
Forty-seven percent of Clarient’s shareholders have so far agreed to a deal that gives them $20 per preferred share and $5 per common share, a 33 percent premium over the company’s $3.77 closing price Oct. 21. Clarient’s board has already unanimously approved the deal.
Some investors are accusing Clarient of agreeing to terms that prevent it from shopping around for a better deal than General Electric’s $587 million offer, however, filing a lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court earlier this week.
GE can’t close the transaction, which it announced Oct. 22, until "shares representing at least a majority of the outstanding shares of Clarient common stock on a fully diluted basis," are tendered, according to the company.
Lifescience holding company Safeguard Scientifics Inc. (NYSE:SFE), which owns approximately 26 percent of Clarient’s outstanding shares, supports the merger deal. Safeguard expects to net about $145 million from the transaction, the company said.
