Mr. Allen continues his tradition of buying high and selling low:
>>Allen files to sell stake in Curis
By Jennifer Waters, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 12:27 PM ET Aug. 11, 2001
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Medical research concern Curis Inc. said a group of stockholders, including financier Paul Allen, are selling 5.2 million shares in the medical research concern, according to a prospectus filed late Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Through his Vulcan Ventures, Allen is selling nearly one-third of his holdings in the year-old company. Allen, who is the co-founder of Microsoft, was among a group of early investors who bought the shares in a private placement in December. Vulcan Ventures is preparing to sell 750,000 shares, but will hold on to 1.56 million shares. Vulcan is the largest shareholder of the group.
Curis is among a handful of companies testing regenerative medicines to restore or preserve damaged human tissues and organs.
On Friday, Curis (CRIS: news, chart, profile) shares sank 9.5 percent to $6.11 after the Cambridge, Mass.-based concern reported a second-quarter loss of $19.3 million, or 61 cents a share, wider than a year-ago loss of $2.5 million, or 22 cents a share.
Revenue totaled $203,000 in the latest three months, up from $7,000 in the same period a year earlier.
The company noted that Stryker (SYK: news, chart, profile) its partner on its OP-1 bone regeneration product, has said it's unable to predict when or if use of OP-1 for non-union fractures would be cleared for marketing approval in the U.S. if at all. The product already has approval in Europe and Australia, and Stryker expects to generate product sales by year-end.
Excluding items, the company said its operating loss for the period was roughly $10 million, in line with a previous outlook. Operating losses for the year are pegged at less than $40 million.
Curis noted it has sufficient capital -- about $59 million -- to continue operations into the second-quarter of 2003 following upfront payments related to deals with Micromet and Elan.
Curis shares began trading last summer and reached a high of $22.50 in September. Since then the shares have been on a precipitous decline, changing hands in the $5-to-$6 range since May.
Jennifer Waters is the Chicago bureau chief for CBS.MarketWatch.com.<<
Cheers, Tuck |
