Navidea Biopharmaceuticals rejects ProPhase Labs offer

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals Inc.
NAVB,
-1.51%
announced Friday that it had rejected an unsolicited ProPhase Labs Inc.
PRPH,
+0.13%
offer for certain Navidea assets, saying the proposal undervalues Navidea and is not in the best interest of shareholders. ProPhase, a biotech, genomics and diagnostics company, said in a release Thursday that on June 8 it had offered $7 million in cash or $9.1 million in common stock for the assets, with the cash offer equivalent to over two times the then-current market cap of Navidea. The Navidea board “flatly rejected the offer” and did not engage in further discussions, ProPhase said. The Navidea board is confident that its approach to advancing the company’s innovations to market “will generate far superior long-term value for shareholders,” Navidea director Josh Wilson said in a statement. Navidea shares were down 2.5% Friday morning, while ProPhase shares were up 0.1%.