Ebb & Flow

The $365 million in cash that Gilead (GILD) is paying for the 87% of Corus it did not already own is giving the private company a total imputed value of $420 million, almost certainly a premium over what it would have fetched had it proceeded with an IPO.

Indeed, a $420 million valuation would have put it far and away at the top of the 2006 IPO crop. Altus (ALTU) is the only biotech to land above $300 million. The gastrointestinal and metabolic disease company, which had ALTU-135 in Phase II at the time of its IPO, raised $105 million in January, giving it a $315 million post-money valuation...