Marion, why don't you get off your ass and post the full story here. I don't even own the damned stock and I'm doing all the work here!
Citation seen seeking higher offers
By Kevin Drawbaugh
CHICAGO, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Citation Computer Systems Inc, a healthcare
data systems supplier, was viewed Thursday as possibly seeking offers to
compete with an unsolicited expression of interest that it received
earlier this week.
Chesterfield, Mo.-based Citation could not be reached for comment on its
hiring of investment bankers to help it evaluate the expression of
interest and explore options.
Industry analysts said the list of potential suitors for Citation could
include leaders in the medical data management market, such as Shared
Medical Systems Corp (SMS - news), HBO & Co (HBOC - news) or Cerner Corp
(CERN - news).
Citation has ''some good systems and would probably fit in somewhere,''
said Burns Pauli Mahoney analyst Michael Ferguson.
''They're evaluating this offer, whatever it is ... Be it Cerner or SMS
(Shared Medical) or HBO or whoever,'' he said.
Shares in Citation closed Wednesday up one at 8-1/2 in light
over-the-counter trading.
Citation managers were likely looking for other offers to match against
the one they received, said one analyst, adding ''There's not a lot of
value above $10 a share.''
A mid-tier player in the growing $13-billion market for computer systems
to automate patient records, physician charts, billings, prescriptions
and other documents, Citation has suffered lately from a series of
business disappointments.
The firm has lost money in four of the past eight quarters and is
expected by analysts to have lost $0.04 per share in its third quarter
ended December 31, according to First Call.
''It's really a history of false starts over the last three years,'' an
analyst said.
Ferguson said he recently visited with managers and found them focused
on getting new systems out the door and hoping for a return to
profitability by 1999, suggesting that the expression of interest was a
surprise.
''Their focus was not on breaking the company up or looking for a buyer
or anything like that,'' Ferguson said.
Rumors circulated about a year ago that Shared Medical, of Malvern, Pa.,
was interested in Citation, analysts said. The name surfaced again on
Wednesday as a possible acquirer of all or part of Citation, which
reported fiscal 1997 revenues of $21.1 million from ongoing operations,
down from $22 million in fiscal 1996.
A spokeswoman for Shared Medical declined to comment. |
