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Acclerys, Symyx Complete Merger

By a GenomeWeb staff reporter

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Accelrys announced today the completion of its merger with Symyx, following approval by both companies' shareholders.

The completion of the merger follows the satisfaction of certain conditions and shareholder meetings held on Wednesday by Accelrys and Symyx to vote on the merger, under which terms Symyx shareholders will receive 0.7802 shares of Accelrys stock for each share of Symyx they own.

Accelrys and Symyx shareholders now each own half of the merged firm. The new firm will keep the Accelrys name and trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol "ACCL."

The merger was first announced in April at a value of about $175 million, or $5 per share. At the time the companies said that the combined company with have market capitalization of about $335 million, cash reserves of around $150 million, and no debt. Full-year net synergies are anticipated to be between $10 million and $15 million.

The combined company has more than 1,350 customers, including 29 of the top 30 biopharmaceutical firms, Accelrys said in a statement.

Last month Certara entered the fray with a bid of $6.75 per share for Symyx, then lowered its offer to $5.75 per share. In the past two weeks, Symyx has turned down Certara three times.

UBS Securities is acting as financial advisor to Symyx, and Jefferies & Co. is Accelrys' financial advisor. Cooley is providing legal counsel to Symyx while Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker is Accelrys' legal advisor.