CombiMatrix Looks to Hire Banker

CombiMatrix, the Mukilteo, WA-based maker of genetic analysis tools, said this week it intends to hire an investment bank to evaluate options to “unlock shareholder value,” which might mean selling the company, parts of the company, or a finding partnership, according to a statement. CombiMatrix (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CBMX]]) considers it a good time to evaluate those options because it has more than a year’s worth of cash in the bank, and it hopes to win $36 million in a court judgment. As we described in this profile in June, CombiMatrix is also going through a strategic shift, gearing its tools more toward the market for cancer diagnostics.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.