Caliper Settles Sale-Related Lawsuits
Officials with Hopkinton-based Caliper Life Sciences have settled three class-action lawsuits brought by shareholders who were attempting to block the company's sale to Waltham-based PerkinElmer.
Shareholders alleged that the purchase price of $10.50 per share, or about $600 million, was too low and that company officials did not execute their fiduciary duty to provide the best value to shareholders.
The day before the Sept. 8 announcement, Caliper stock was selling at $7.39 per share. It jumped to $10.43 the day of the announcement and has remained within a few cents of that figure since.
Caliper reached an agreement to settle the suits without admitting any wrongdoing, but the company did provide additional information about internal negotiations regarding the sale.
Specifically, a disclosure filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows Caliper President and CEO Kevin Hrusovsky advocated moving forward with the sale of the company before it was publicly announced because of a decline in the overall market immediately preceding the sale announcement, making the $10.50 share price "still very attractive."
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but the Delaware Court of Chancery - where the three suits were filed - will have an opportunity to review its details and approve the agreement.
[To read more about Caliper's sale to PerkinElmer, click here.]
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