A French drugmaker’s bid to acquire one of New England’s biggest biotechs turned hostile this week. Read on for this, and some of the week’s less predictable deals news from the tech and life sciences sectors.
—Watertown, MA-based WiTricity forged an alliance with Troy, MI-based Delphi Automotive aimed at developing wireless charging stations for hybrid and electric vehicles. The companies did not reveal the financial terms of the deal, which marks the first automotive partnership for WiTricity, whose primary market is wireless charging of consumer electronics.
—Dyax (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DYAX]]), the Cambridge, MA-based biotech, signed a drug development and commercialization agreement with the Japanese contract research organization CMIC. The deal, which includes a $4 million upfront payment to Dyax and potentially $102 million in development and sales milestone payments, focuses on commercializing Dyax’s DX-88 (ecallantide) in Japan.
—Transportation management software maker BirdDog Solutions of Andover, MA, raised $2.1 million in an equity-based financing round that could ultimately total $2.4 million, according to a regulatory filing.
—The Cambridge-based One Laptop per Child Foundation scored $5.6 million from Santa Clara, CA-based semiconductor maker Marvell to fund development of a tablet computer, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte told Bob. The tablet represents the third generation of OLPC’s XO laptop, and so will be called the XO 3.
—French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE:[[ticker:SNY]]) launched a hostile takeover bid for Cambridge-based Genzyme (NASDAQ:[[ticker:GENZ]]) with a tender offer of $69 per share. The bid, worth $18.5 billion total, is priced the same as an earlier offer that was unanimously rejected by Genzyme’s board in August.
—The Echo Nest, a startup in Somerville, MA, that provides a music-data service for independent app developers, raised $7 million in a Series B funding round. New investor Matrix Partners led the deal, which included participation from return backer Commonwealth Capital Ventures.
