Origin Technologies Raises Bid for Affymetrix -- 2nd Update

By Josh Beckerman

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. The deal offered a 52% premium to Affymetrix's stock price before the announcement.

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.

When Origin announced the offer it said it had fully committed debt financing from Shanghai-based private-equity firm SummitView Capital.

Affymetrix said it had preliminary talks last fall with individuals who became principals and potential backers of Origin.

In recent after-hours trading, Affymetrix shares rose 2.7% to $14.76.

The four people running Origin formerly worked at Affymetrix as vice presidents, including a former general counsel and a head of molecular diagnostics research and development.

Origin has said it would consider a combination with genomic technologies company Centrillion Technology Holdings Corp. following an Affymetrix deal. Origin's president, Wei Zhou, founded Centrillion.

Origin said it is prepared to increase a proposed reverse termination fee to $100 million from $75 million, to provide assurance of its commitment to the deal and demonstrate confidence in its ability to meet its financial obligations.

It is also prepared to include a "hell or high water" provision in a merger agreement requiring it to "take any and all actions required to obtain regulatory approvals, in the event they are required."

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 22, 2016 20:10 ET (00:10 GMT)

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