The takeover speculation that hit Irvine’s Allergan Inc. on Tuesday moved to Fullerton-based medical diagnostic company Beckman Coulter Inc. on Wednesday.
Beckman, which makes machines and supplies for medical testing and research, saw a rush in options trading by investors betting it could be a takeover target.
Nearly all of the activity was for Beckman call options,bets that a stock will go up in price, as is often the case in an acquisition.
Contracts to buy Beckman shares at $55 that expire on April 17 hit 7,710 on Wednesday, versus typical Beckman call trading in the hundreds of contracts for the past month.
Deals to buy Beckman shares at $50 for April 17 also surged, hitting 1,706.
The company’s stock price closed up 2% at $50.48 on a market value of $3.2 billion.
There were no specific reports about Beckman takeover rumors.
The company, the last stand-alone maker of medical diagnostic equipment, long has been the subject of buyout speculation.
Beckman saw a run-up in 2007 on speculation the company could be bought.
At that time, Siemens AG’s buy of Beckman rival Dade Behring Holdings Inc. sparked speculation about an acquisition of Beckman.
The latest Beckman call activity follows Tuesday’s heavy buying of Allergan calls on a report from Web site DealReporter.com that Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline PLC could be interested in buying the drug maker.
