bta board dismissed substantially higher offer, page-12

Article from 'The Age':

Biota's bitter pill 'Shareholders are the losers in the battle over Relenza'AdvertisementMichael West
July 24, 2008 - 10:47AM

Biota is believed to have knocked back an offer from drug giant GlaxoSmithKline of between $70 million and $80 million to settle the costly litigation over its Relenza product.

Instead, the Melbourne-based biotech group announced on Monday that it had settled for a mere $20 million.

BusinessDay understands the offer of $70 million-plus had been put to Biota earlier this year.

It was rejected. On top of that, GSK is also understood to have offered to pay Biota's costs, estimated at $35 million to $40 million.

Biota's chief executive Peter Cook was unavailable to comment this morning. Chairman John Grant is travelling said a spokeswoman and could not be contacted.