[Corrected 4:40pm ET, June 22; see first item] Deals last week involved everything from cancer screening to trash compacting, but the analysts were kept on their toes by the dramatic events unfolding between EMC and Data Domain.
—Reuters reported that data storage giant EMC (NYSE [[ticker:EMC]]), of Hopkinton, MA, was prepared to raise its bid—from $30 to $35 dollars a share—to acquire Data Domain (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DDUP]]), a data deduplication software company based in Santa Clara, CA. The increase, if it occurred, would be made to outbid EMC rival NetApp’s (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NTAP]]) bid of $30 per share. [An earlier version of this item implied that EMC had made the increase, which EMC informed us was erroneous—Eds.] The Data Domain board recommended that shareholders reject EMC’s $30 offer, but two law firms filed class action suits on behalf of company shareholders against the board for refusing to negotiate with the Hopkinton firm.
—Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:[[ticker:EXAS]]), the Marlborough, MA-based developer of a DNA-based colorectal cancer screening test raised $8.2 million in private placement of stock. The company also announced that it had licensed technology related to DNA testing for the disease from the Mayo Clinic.
—BigBelly Solar, a Needham, MA, startup, inked a deal to distribute its solar-powered trash-compacting bin technology through Waste Management (NYSE: [[ticker:WMI]]), a Houston, TX-based waste removal company with over 20 million customers. Waste Management operates in dozens of places across North America, many of which may soon sport BigBelly technology, with the aim of lowering municipal waste expenses.
—Novartis (NYSE: [[ticker:NVS]]), the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, joined five other major drug makers in backing Boston-based startup Enlight Biosciences. Enlight is developing technologies to