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A not-for-profit foundation has put Osteotech Inc. in play with a $108 million hostile bid-but it's unclear if strategics who have shown interest before will come back for a bidding war.
In a rare move by a not-for-profit, The Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation (MTF) went public with its unsolicited bid for Osteotech on Aug. 29. The offer is $6.25 per share in cash and Osteotech's board rejected it as undervalued.
Eatontown, N.J.-based Osteotech processes bone and tissue, preparing it for transplant, and also develops its own biomaterial for surgery. Customer and competitor MTF is the world's largest tissue bank, a consortium of academic medical institutions and tissue recovery organizations.
It appears that there could be other bidders and that Osteotech would be willing to sell at the right price. The Street pushed the shares up 26% on the news to trade at or a few cents below the offer price. At press time, they traded at $6.06 per share.
MTF President Bruce Stroever said Osteotech Chief Executive Officer Richard Bauer indicated to him that Osteotech's board was not looking to sell but has not said the company is opposed to selling.
Stroever said Osteotech has not told him the exact price it would sell for, only that that number is "a lot higher than the number we're at." MTF's offer values Osteotech at 1.2 times sales.
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