Shareholder battle brewing at Promega Corp.

Shareholder battle brewing at Promega Corp.

Promega Corp., one of the Madison area’s most successful, homegrown and fiercely independent biotechnology companies, is in the midst of a hostile takeover attempt by two shareholders who want to buy a majority of shares and boot Promega’s founder and CEO Bill Linton.

Ted Kellner, of Milwaukee, and Nathan Brand, of Miami, sent a letter to shareholders, dated July 24, offering to buy outstanding shares of Promega Corp. for $625 a share, about two and a half times what the company was valued at recently by Linton and the board of directors.

The State Journal obtained a copy of the letter, providing a rare, inside view of the company, considered the grandfather of the local biotechnology industry. Privately owned companies such as Promega are not required to make public the type of information that companies whose shares are traded on Wall Street must disclose.

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