Illumina gains on rumors of new Roche bid

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) jumped $4.02 (8%) to $56.19 on Thursday on rumors that Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY) made another bid to acquire the sequencing and microarray company for $66 per share, or about $8.1 billion. The price would be a 48% premium to Roche's original hostile bid in January of $44.50 per share, or about $5.7 billion, and a 29% premium to Roche's bumped-up offer of $51 per share, or about $6.3 billion. Roche declined to comment while Illumina could not be reached (see BioCentury, Jan. 30). ...