Could Be an Interesting Tomorrow For Illumina and StemCells

Illumina (ILMN) closed last week at $52.61. Headline seen at Bloomberg.com: "Roche May Abandon its Bid for Illumina, SonntagsZeitung Reports". If true, then I expect ILMN shares to take a hit. Regardless, the Roach (oops Roche) offer indicates that Illumina is worth ~$50 if the future is ignored. I am 99.999% convinced that ILMN shares are being subjected to major manipulation right now.

I guess it all depends on how you define much more and reasonable... Posted to SeekingAlpha.com: "I carry the consensus opinion that ILMN is worth much more than $51/share, and with that being said $57-$59/share would be a reasonable offer to shareholders by Roche." My opinion is that ILMN is worth much more than $59 per share.

StemCells (STEM) was up 11% on Friday, 02012.03.30, closing at $1.11. Volume was double the trailing-3-month average. The company announced that on Monday, 02012.04.02, they will have a "Webcast to Discuss Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease Clinical Trial Results". These shares could tank if the news isn't better than good news (i.e. they could tank on good news). 52-week range: $0.70 - $9.80.

[update::02012.04.02] Illumina (ILMN) reported preliminary 1Q'12 results. This is our third consecutive quarter with a book-to-bill over 1, and we are very encouraged by evidence that our customers are getting back to work," said Jay Flatley, President & CEO of Illumina. I suspect the company issued this news because of what's happening with Roche.

[update::02012.04.02] It appears as though the news from StemCells Inc. was positive, but STEM is down almost 6% at 8:06am MST.