Officials at Medafor Inc., a Brooklyn Center-based maker of a novel blood clotting product, said they've been looking for ways to enhance shareholder value — be it an initial public offering, new business relationships or just continuing organic growth. The one thing they weren't looking for was a buyer, leaders said Monday.
Then the folks at C.R. Bard Inc., a New Jersey-based medical equipment maker, came calling.
Their offer — $200 million in cash now and up to $80 million more if revenue targets are hit in the next two years — proved too attractive to pass up, said Medafor CEO Gary Shope.
Medafor on Monday announced that it has an agreement to be purchased by C.R. Bard's Davol Inc. division. The transaction has been approved by both companies' boards of directors, but is subject to approval by Medafor's shareholders and customary regulatory review.
"The premium price underscores what we have been building on," Shope said in an interview Monday. "I think the shareholders are being rewarded with a great price."
Medafor's appeal has been its plant-based microporous polysaccharide hemospheres technology, which is used in its Arista MPH hemostat product. The product rapidly dehydrates blood and accelerates the body's natural blood-clotting process.
Sept. 24 is the target date for shareholder approval, Shope said. The deal values Medafor's privately held shares at $6.37 per share. The revenue-based incentives are valued at up to $2.82 per share.
It's a significantly better deal than the $2 per share that Atlanta-based CryoLife Inc. proposed in a takeover bid in 2010. At the time, the Medafor board called the bid "grossly inadequate." CryoLife was an exclusive-rights distributor for Medafor's blood-clotting technology in the United States and some international markets. It had also made offers for Medafor in 2008 and 2009, which Medafor also rebuffed.