Beckman Coulter Inc., the Fullerton-based medical testing company, most likely will raise its bid for San Diego’s Biosite Inc. to at least $88 a share before this Wednesday, according to a report in Monday’s Financial Times that cited two analysts and an industry source.
Beckman originally offered $85 a share, or $1.55 billion for Biosite.
Last week, Biosite told Beckman that it found a $90 a share bid, $1.6 billion, from Massachusetts-based Inverness Medical Innovations Inc. superior to Beckman’s bid.
Beckman, which couldn’t be reached by the Financial Times, has the right to match the Inverness bid until Wednesday.
Greg Simpson, an analyst with Stifel & Co. in St. Louis, told the paper that he’d be surprised if Beckman walked away from Biosite without offering a counter bid, even though Beckman’s original bid did come under fire because it was more than 50% above Biosite’s share price in late March, when it first came about.
Simpson said he expected that Beckman could respond with a bid of $90 to $92 a share.
