San Diego, CA 1/9/09 and 1/14/09; Marlborough, MA 1/12/09—Sequenom has announced that it will commence its exchange offer for publicly-held EXACT Sciences, a provider of a noninvasive stool-based DNA screening technology for colorectal cancer, despite a unanimously rejection of its offer by EXACT’s Board. On January 9, Sequenom made public its $41 million all-stock offer for the company, consisting of $1.50 in Sequenom common stock for each share of EXACT Sciences, which represents a 69% premium to the closing price on January 8. Under the proposal, each share of EXACT Sciences would be subject to a floating exchange rate within a 15% collar, in which the price of Sequenom’s common stock is $20.74–$28.06 per share. EXACT Sciences rejected the offer on January 12, stating that it was pursuing a strategic alternative that would provide greater value. Harry Stylli, PhD, president and CEO of Sequenom stated: “We have decided to move forward with this acquisition because EXACT Sciences is essentially a shell with intellectual property assets, and we expect it would be straightforward to assimilate the assets into our operations with minimal near-term cash outlay and execution risk to our current initiatives”