Suitor scorned

Dianon Systems' $7.50 per share takeout bid for UroCor last week took the urology company by surprise, because "we'd been in discussions to acquire their urology business for years," said Socrates Choumbakos, UCOR's senior vice president of corporate planning and development. UCOR's board rejected the bid - which would have valued UCOR at $84 million - as inadequate.

UCOR, a disease management company, provides products and services for urological conditions, including prostate cancer, bladder cancer and kidney stones. DIAN provides anatomic cytopathology testing services and genetic and clinical chemistry testing...