Origin Technologies Raises Bid for Affymetrix

A group of former Affymetrix Inc. executives on Tuesday raised its offer for the genetic-analysis company by 5.6% in another attempt to disrupt the planned tie-up with Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Origin Technologies Corp., a newly formed entity owned by former Affymetrix executives, increased its all-cash offer to $17 a share, valuing Affymetrix at about $1.58 billion and trumping its previous offer of $16.10 a share.

Earlier this week, Affymetrix reaffirmed its commitment to the Thermo-Fisher deal. In January, Thermo Fisher agreed to buy Affymetrix for about $14 a share, or roughly $1.3 billion, in a bid to boost its biogenetic-analysis portfolio.

Origin on Tuesday also called for Affymetrix to delay the shareholder meeting scheduled for Thursday to vote on the sale to Thermo Fisher.

Affymetrix and Thermo Fisher representatives didn't immediately return calls for comment. Thermo Fisher said earlier Tuesday that its deal has "more value" and "far less risk" than Origin's offer.

In rejecting Origin's earlier offer, Affymetrix said Origin appeared to be a newly-formed shell entity with no known assets. Affymetrix said Origin's "sole source of funding" was $1.5 billion in potential debt commitments and that this "falls materially short of the funds" needed to complete a deal.

In recent after-hours trading, Affymetrix shares rose 4.3% to $14.99.

Write to Josh Beckerman at josh.beckerman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 22, 2016 19:05 ET (23:05 GMT)

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