Cornerstone receives proposal to go private

Cornerstone Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:CRTX) said its board received a proposal from partner Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A. (Parma, Italy) to take Cornerstone private. Chiesi, which owns about 60% of Cornerstone, is proposing to acquire all of the Cornerstone shares it does not already own for $6.40-$6.70 per share in cash. The deal would value Cornerstone at up to $177.2 million based on 26.4 million shares outstanding at Nov. 1, 2012. The price is a 16-22% premium to Cornerstone's close of $5.50 on Tuesday, before the proposal was made public.

Chiesi CEO, Ugo Di Francesco, said in the proposal that Chiesi believes Cornerstone "would be best positioned for long term growth and development as a private company and would benefit substantially from the synergies and shared resources that would result from this transaction with Chiesi." Cornerstone, which said its board has not made any decisions related to the proposal, could not be reached for a timeline on when the board would respond. Cornerstone jumped $1.35 (25%) to $6.85 on Wednesday. ...