SomaLogic Inc said on Monday it will merge with activist investor Keith Meister-backed special purpose acquisition company in a deal that values the protein analysis company at $1.23 billion.
The deal with CM Life Sciences II Inc will fetch SomaLogic $651 million. The proceeds will include a private investment of $375 million from SoftBank Group Corp’s subsidiary SB Management and accounts advised by Cathies Wood’s Ark Invest, among others.
CM Life Sciences is sponsored by an affiliate of Meister’s Corvex Management LP and investor Eli Casdin’s Casdin Capital.
Meister was the principal executive officer at Carl Icahn’s business holding company, Icahn Enterprises LP, from 2003 to 2010 and once viewed as the billionaire activist investor’s right-hand man.
Another SPAC backed by the Meister and Casdin duo agreed to take digital healthcare company Sema4 public in February.
SPACs have no business operations but the list on exchanges so as to use the capital from an IPO to buy a private firm, thereby taking it public.
CM Life Sciences II went public in a $276 million IPO in February this year. Its prospectus showed it intended to merge with a company in the life sciences sector.
Boulder, Colorado-headquartered SomaLogic was founded in 2000 and focuses on the study of proteins. It offers tests that can help diagnose diseases with a single sample of blood, its website showed.
Source: Reuters.com