Life Technologies

Dexter Corp. yesterday raised to $39.125 a share from $37 its unsolicited offer to buy the 48 percent of Rockville-based Life Technologies Inc. it doesn't already own after the specialty chemicals maker failed to get the minimum number of shares required in its earlier bid.The new offer totals about $447 million, up from $420 million. A committee at Life Technologies rejected Dexter's July bid as inadequate, and Dexter took the offer directly to Life Technologies shareholders last month.Windsor Locks, Conn.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore on Thursday announced a public-private partnership with two companies to offer stem cells for research and clinical testing. The university's Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine will work with Paragon Bioservices Inc., based in the university's BioPark, to offer stem cell services, such as the production and storage of various types of stem cells. The second company, California-based Life Technologies Inc., will provide training for research scientists who perform work for the partnership.

Several shareholders in Rockville-based Life Technologies Inc. filed suit yesterday in an effort to block Dexter Corp.'s $37-a-share bid to purchase the 48 percent of Life Technologies that it doesn't already own.The suits, filed in Delaware Chancery Court in Wilmington, say the offer that Dexter made Tuesday -- 19 percent more than Life Technologies' closing price that day of $31 -- is too low.On news of the proposed deal, Life Technologies stock surged...

I foolishly ignored an ominous clicking sound on my home telephone line two months ago. Finally, on the afternoon of Jan. 15, the phone line went dead, and it remains that way. Some people might go crazy with no ringing, but I've enjoyed the winter silence. (We'll discuss my consumer experience with AT&T another time.) I prefer to blame the squirrels in the backyard. I envision them munching on the phone wire's insulation and making luxury apartments out of the alley utility poles.

Dexter Corp. said yesterday that it will make a tender offer for the 48 percent of Rockville-based Life Technologies Inc. it does not own, after the maker of chemicals for biological research rejected Dexter's unsolicited $420 million bid.The $37-a-share cash offer will be made directly to Life Technologies' shareholders. The price is 19 percent more than Life Technologies' closing share price before its original offer July 7, Dexter said.Life Technologies, with 1997 sales of about $331 million, makes cell nutrients and other compounds used in biotechnology.

Rich in cash and profitable, Life Technologies Inc. declared yesterday a special dividend of $3.50 a share and adopted a new dividend policy.The 8-year-old Gaithersburg company, a supplier to the growing biotechnology industry, has not paid dividends before, its president, J. Stark Thompson, said.The company's cash position was behind its decision to declare the one-time dividend, payable March 26 to shareholders of record March 12, he said."We're an unusual company in that over the years we have accumulated a lot of cash and no debt," Mr. Thompson said in a telephone interview from a meeting in New York.

Life Technologies Inc. of Gaithersburg said yesterday it will sell a line of diagnostic products designed to find the human papilloma virus to Digene Diagnostics Inc. of Silver Spring for an undisclosed price.Casimir P. Eitner, Life Technologies vice president, said the move is the partial fulfillment of a promise earlier this year that the company would leave the diagnostic-products business.The product line, which detects a sexually transmitted virus that can lead to cervical cancer, had commanded Life Technologies' biggest investment in diagnostic products.

Life Technologies Inc., a supplier of biological products to biotech companies, reported a 32 percent increase in earnings to $3.78 million in the period that ended Sept. 30 from $2.8 million for the same period in 1991.The Gaithersburg company also reported revenues of $49.4 million for the third quarter compared with $41.1 million for the year before.Three months ended 9/30/92......... . . ....Revenue........... Net................ Share'92.. ......... 49,461,000........ 3,780,000......

Dexter Corp.'s effort to take full control of Rockville-based Life Technologies Inc. came up short, the chemical maker said yesterday, but it did manage to raise its stake in Life Technologies to about 71 percent.Dexter originally offered $37 a share in a bid to buy the 48 percent of Life Technologies it did not already own, but earlier this month raised its unsolicited offer to $39.125 after a committee at Life Technologies rejected the first bid as inadequate.Dexter then took the offer directly to Life Technologies shareholders last month.

WASHINGTON -- An investment group that includes Samuel Heyman raised its stake in Life Technologies Inc., a specialty chemical maker that's been a takeover target of Dexter Corp.Heyman, chief executive of International Specialty Products Inc. of Wayne, N.J., and his affiliates raised their stake in Life Technologies to 26.2 percent from 20.42 percent of common TTC shares, according to a regulatory filing.The investors had previously refused to sell their Life Technologies shares under tender offer by specialty-chemical maker Dexter, saying the price was too low.Windsor Locks, Conn.

Human Genome Sciences Inc. said yesterday that it has agreed to buy the Rockville campus of Life Technologies Inc. for $55 million, giving the company the added capacity to create its next generation of experimental drugs. The 18-acre campus, with three buildings and 240,000 square feet of labs and offices, will be in addition to two other facilities Human Genome plans to begin building this year. The company intends to break ground this summer on a new headquarters and research campus on a 55-acre lot it has under contract adjacent to the Life Technologies site.

Rockville-based Life Technologies Inc. is now a part of a California company that makes tools for pharmaceutical companies and researchers to use as they hunt for new ways to treat disease. Invitrogen Corp. completed its $1.9 billion acquisition yesterday of Life Technologies and its 75 percent owner, Dexter Corp., the companies said. Shareholders voted yesterday to approve the acquisition, and shares of Dexter ceased to trade after the merger. The acquisition ends a bitter fight over Life Technologies, but apparently not a fight over the spoils.

Shares of Life Technologies Inc., a Rockville biotechnology company caught in the crossfire of a hostile takeover attempt, surged yesterday to a yearly high when a new player, Invitrogen Corp., agreed to buy it and its majority owner, Dexter Corp., for $1.9 billion. It was much-awaited relief in the seven-month battle during which investors largely ignored the long-profitable Life Tech because of wrangling between Dexter Corp. and International Specialty Products Inc. Dexter owns 75 percent of Life Tech.

In a corporate battle that will determine the fate of Rockville biotechnology firm Life Technologies Inc., International Specialty Products Inc. is waging a hostile takeover of Dexter Corp. Dexter, the oldest company on the New York Stock Exchange, has accumulated a 71 percent interest in Life Technologies, one of the players in Maryland's burgeoning biotech sector. Almost all of the rest of Life Technologies is owned by another chemicals and materials company, International Specialty Products Inc. of Wayne, N.J. Dexter and International Security have different ideas of how Life Technologies should be run. The feud is complicated because International Specialty owns 10 percent of Dexter, based in Windsor Locks, Conn.

A Rockville-based specialty chemical maker embroiled in a battle over shareholder control said yesterday that it will no longer pay a quarterly dividend. Life Technologies Inc. had paid a 5-cent dividend for the past eight quarters.Life Technologies is controlled by Dexter Corp., a Windsor Locks, Conn., company that makes chemicals for the aerospace, food packaging, electronics and medical markets. Late last year Dexter, which holds 71.4 percent of Life Technologies shares, made a bid for the remaining shares, but the investment firm that controls most of them did not like the offer -- initially $37 a share and eventually reaching $39.125.

Life Technologies Inc. yesterday posted a 3 percent gain in earnings for the second quarter.The Rockville-based supplier to the life science research and biotechnology industries reported earnings of $9.76 million for the three months that ended June 30, up from $9.45 million in the second quarter of 1998.Diluted earnings per share were 39 cents, unchanged from the corresponding period last year and below analysts' expectations of 42 cents a share.Revenue in the quarter was $100.3 million, up from $92.2 million in the second quarter of 1998.

In a corporate battle that will determine the fate of Rockville biotechnology firm Life Technologies Inc., International Specialty Products Inc. is waging a hostile takeover of Dexter Corp. Dexter, the oldest company on the New York Stock Exchange, has accumulated a 71 percent interest in Life Technologies, one of the players in Maryland's burgeoning biotech sector. Almost all of the rest of Life Technologies is owned by another chemicals and materials company, International Specialty Products Inc. of Wayne, N.J. Dexter and International Security have different ideas of how Life Technologies should be run. The feud is complicated because International Specialty owns 10 percent of Dexter, based in Windsor Locks, Conn.

Two members of Life Technologies Inc.'s board of directors resigned yesterday, saying it had become untenable for them to continue serving in the face of heavy-handed tactics used by Dexter Corp. in its efforts to take full control of the Rockville-based company.Frank E. Samuel Jr., president of the Edison Biotechnology Center in Cleveland, and Iain C. Wylie, a London-based biotechnology industry consultant, said in their resignation letters they believe Dexter's $37-a-share offer significantly undervalues Life Technologies.

WASHINGTON -- An investment group that includes Samuel Heyman raised its stake in Life Technologies Inc., a specialty chemical maker that's been a takeover target of Dexter Corp.Heyman, chief executive of International Specialty Products Inc. of Wayne, N.J., and his affiliates raised their stake in Life Technologies to 26.2 percent from 20.42 percent of common TTC shares, according to a regulatory filing.The investors had previously refused to sell their Life Technologies shares under tender offer by specialty-chemical maker Dexter, saying the price was too low.Windsor Locks, Conn.

Dexter Corp.'s effort to take full control of Rockville-based Life Technologies Inc. came up short, the chemical maker said yesterday, but it did manage to raise its stake in Life Technologies to about 71 percent.Dexter originally offered $37 a share in a bid to buy the 48 percent of Life Technologies it did not already own, but earlier this month raised its unsolicited offer to $39.125 after a committee at Life Technologies rejected the first bid as inadequate.Dexter then took the offer directly to Life Technologies shareholders last month.