A medical device firm with ties to Duke University is acquiring a public company in a cash deal.
Durham-based restor3d is paying $2.27 per share in cash for Conformis (Nasdaq: CFMS), a medical technology company with headquarters in Massachusetts. The price represents a 96 percent premium to Conformis' closing stock price on Thursday and is equal to around $17 million given the amount of outstanding shares.
The Conformis Board of Directors unanimously signed off on the merger, which will require the approval of the company's stockholders, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The companies anticipate that the deal will close in the third quarter. After the deal closes, Conformis stock will be delisted from the Nasdaq.
For restor3d, the acquisition comes after the company filed paperwork in late May for a $12 million raise. The company also raised about $23 million in 2022, according to SEC filings.
The deal will create a "leading personalized 3D-printed medical device company," restor3d CEO Kurt Jacobus said in a statement.
"By leveraging the strengths in our respective portfolios around artificial-intelligence-driven implant design, digital automation, and 3D printed osseointegrative biomaterials, we see tremendous opportunity to offer clinically differentiated and cost-effective solutions across the orthopedic landscape, including shoulder, foot & ankle, spine, and large joints," Jacobus said.
In addition to Jacobus, restor3d's leadership team includes Ken Gall, co-founder and chief commercial officer, who is a professor at Duke.
Conformis, which had 295 full-time employees at the end of last year, saw its stock price raise nearly 90 percent Friday. But over the past year, the company's stock has fallen about 77 percent. In November Conformis implemented a reverse stock split after falling out of compliance with a Nasdaq rule that requires listed companies to maintain a stock price at or above $1 a share.
The company last year reported product revenue of about $57.8 million, a slight drop from $58.3 million in 2021. Conformis ended the first quarter with $37.8 million in cash, an amount that the company expects would support its operations and capital expenditures for a year, according to its quarterly filing with the SEC.
