Sequenom Raising Capital After Class Action Settlement (SQNM)

The public is getting to take yet one more bet on Sequenom Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM) at a discount.  The diagnostics company has never fully recovered from its Down’s Syndrome test blunders of the past and shares have languished.  The company has disclosed that it plans to sell an undisclosed number of shares in a public secondary offering, but may have priced down around $4.15 or $4.20 per share.

Sequenom put out a filing last night noting that the company’s cash, cash equivalents and current marketable securities were approximately $84.2 million as of December 31, 2011. The company also noted. “On January 10, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York formally approved a settlement of the class action captioned In re Sequenom, Inc. IPO Securities Litigation(Case No. 01-CV-10831) relating to allegations that our underwriters, certain of our officers and directors and we violated the federal securities laws because our registration statement and prospectus in connection with our initial public offering contained untrue statements of material fact or omitted material facts regarding the compensation to be received by and the stock allocation practices of the underwriters… Accordingly, all claims against us and our officers and directors in the IPO Cases will be dismissed with prejudice, and our pro rata share of the settlement fund will be fully funded by insurance.”