NEW YORK, Oct. 16 – Celera Genomics and Axys Pharmaceuticals have planned “a special meeting” on Nov. 16 at 1:00 p.m. EST to discuss the proposed acquisition of Axys by Celera’s parent company Applera, the companies announced on Tuesday.
The meeting will be held at Axys' headquarters in South San Francisco, Calif. Proxy statement for the meeting are expected to be mailed on or about Oct. 16 to Axys stockholders of record as of Oct. 1, 2001.
As GenomeWeb reported, Celera in June announced its intent to acquire Axys in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at $173.4 million, making good on its promise to purchase a company with chemistry and drug design capabilities.
The deal calls for to pay Axys shareholders the equivalent of $4.65 per Axys share, representing a 35 percent premium based on Axys' closing price of $3.45 a share on June 12.
Axys reported 37.3 million shares outstanding in its first-quarter earnings.
Celera, of Rockville, Md., said it hopes to use Axys' small-molecules libraries and its experience in structural and medicinal chemistry to identify potential drugs for protein targets that Celera identifies through its proteomics program.