Simulation and modeling software firm Simulations Plus said this week that an undisclosed firm it has been pursuing for six months as a potential acquisition candidate has declined its offer.
Walt Woltosz, chairman and CEO of the firm, said in a statement that the acquisition target, which would have been an addition to the pharmaceutical software and services side of its business, "is no longer under consideration."
Woltosz said that Simulations Plus was "in competition with another suitor, and although the offers were essentially equal, the company we wanted to acquire decided to pursue the other offer."
The acquisition target is currently in a 45-day period of finalizing that deal. If the agreement does not go through for any reason, "we will be able to reopen discussions with that acquisition target,” he said.
Woltosz added that during the course its due diligence for the acquisition over the last six months, "we identified several other opportunities and we are investigating them at this time."
He said that "a major responsibility" of Michael Pelekis, who the company just appointed as director of business development (see "People in the News," this issue), will be to "investigate the acquisition opportunities we know about today, as well as to identify new ones that would provide both top-line and bottom-line growth for the company.”