Despite making an unsolicited bid for gene therapy maker bluebird bio, Ayrmid failed to deliver a binding offer after weeks of due diligence. Bluebird’s board recommended that it go with Carlyle and SK Capital Partner’s original offer to take the company private for $30 million.
Despite weeks of communication between the two companies, bluebird bio announced Wednesday that Ayrmid has not submitted a binding proposal to buy the company, despite an unsolicited offer in late March.
Bluebird had already entered into a purchase agreement with the investment firms Carlyle and SK Capital Partners in February for $3 per share, or $30 million total. Ayrmid, an Ireland-based investment firm, offered $4.50 per share, a 50% premium on Carlyle and SK Capital’s offer, with an additional $6.84 per share payment based on sales milestones.
“Bluebird has engaged with Ayrmid on two separate occasions—neither of which has resulted in a binding or fully-financed offer,” bluebird’s Chairman Mark Vachon said in a statement. Vachon also noted that without an infusion of capital in some form or another, bluebird was at risk of defaulting on its loans.
Bluebird’s board, therefore, reiterated support for the initial Carlyle and SK Capital deal. That original deal was expected to close in the first half of 2025, before Ayrmid’s imposition, and would take bluebird private.
According to bluebird’s statement, Ayrmid and bluebird took part in a two-week due diligence period after the unsolicited offer, and bluebird even extended the period by four days at Ayrmid’s request, after which Ayrmid failed to submit a binding offer and admitted that it didn’t have the necessary financing to go through with the purchase.
Bluebird once commanded a far mightier valuation, peaking at just shy of $12.5 billion in 2018. While the company has secured a series of FDA approvals—Lyfgenia for sickle cell disease, Zynteglo for beta-thalassemia and Skysona for cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy—the therapies have struggled on the market with slow uptake.
With its cash runway ending in the first quarter of 2025, analysts began to worry that bluebird would not make it to a revenue break-even point later this year.
When the Carlyle and SK Capital deal was initially announced, bluebird saw the purchase as “the only viable solution to generate value for stockholders.”
