Onyx explores possible sale after rejecting Amgen offer

By Ryan Vlastelica and Olivia Oran

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cancer drugmaker Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Sunday it rejected a roughly $10 billion takeover offer from larger biotechnology company Amgen Inc as too low but still is considering selling itself.

Onyx said Amgen's cash offer of $120 a share, which represents a premium of about 38 percent to the company's Friday closing price, "significantly undervalued" its prospects.

Deutsche Bank analyst Robin Karnauskas estimated Onyx's value to a merger partner at up to $148 a share. At $140 a share, the deal would add to Amgen's earnings starting in 2015, she said in a research note.

Onyx said in a statement it was "actively exploring" a merger partner, and that it had hired financial advisor Centerview Partners to contact potential buyers. The San Francisco-based company cited "expressions of interest" from Amgen and other unnamed third parties.

An Onyx spokeswoman declined to comment further on the statement. Amgen did not respond to a request for comment.

Onyx has a market cap of $6.32 billion and revenue of $362 million in 2012, while Amgen is the world's largest biotech company, with a market cap of about $74 billion.

Onyx sells Nexavar, a treatment for liver and kidney cancer, as well as colon cancer drug Stivarga in partnership with German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG . Last year, Onyx launched sales of blood cancer drug Krypolis, which Karnauskas estimates will reach peak annual sales of $3 billion.

Amgen has been looking for new ways to boost its product pipeline as sales for its flagship anemia drugs Aranesp and Epogen have been in a decline for years because of usage restrictions and safety concerns.

Chief Executive Officer Bob Bradway, who took the helm of the Thousand Oaks, California company just over a year ago, has been able to keep investors happy with higher dividends and share repurchases.

Amgen said earlier this year it was making a push into biosimilars - cheaper alternative versions of biotech medicines - with plans to launch six beginning in 2017.

Amgen's first-quarter sales fell short of expectations, as revenue for the period rose 5 percent to $4.24 billion which was short of Wall Street projections of $4.37 billion.

The Financial Post reported the offer on Friday, sparking a steep jump in Onyx shares in after-hours trading.

As of Friday's close, shares of Onyx had gained 31 percent over the past 12 months. Shares of Amgen were up 35 percent over the same period.

ISI Group analyst Mark Schoenebaum wrote that if a deal were to be made, Onyx's Kyprolis would fit well into Amgen's cancer drug sales and marketing infrastructure and complement Amgen's portfolio of cancer drugs.

Kyprolis, developed for patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least two prior therapies, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last July.

Large pharmaceutical companies have increasingly been looking to acquire smaller biotech firms to gain access to new drugs, often cancer drugs which can command high prices, as they face significant revenue losses stemming from expired patents.

This need has driven the volume of healthcare M&A in the first six months of 2013 to $93.6 billion up 30.2 percent over the same period last year.

Recent deals include generic drugmaker Actavis Inc's $8.5 billion acquisition of Warner Chilcott and Human Genome Sciences' $3 billion sale to GlaxoSmithKline Plc .

(Additional reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Bill Trott, Marguerita Choy and Diane Craft)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/onyx-explores-possible-sale-rejecting-amgen-offer-001519575.html

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U.S. justices to hear presidential appointments case (reuters)

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Ask A Google Street View Driver Anything You Want

So you're on the Google and you want to see what a road in Turkey looks like. You click on the map, and, holy crap, there's a photo of it at street level. That's thanks to Google Street View, where they use cars and bikes to take pictures of the world. And now one of the drivers is here to answer your questions.

Street View is one of the cooler, and more intrusive, mapping features that we've ever seen. A camera mounted on top of a car takes 360 degree pictures as it drives up and down streets. Those pictures then get uploaded to the internets months later for your viewing pleasure. And then you see some cool stuff, like Google spying on Google or a donkey that appears dead.

I once saw the car driving down the street in my neighborhood. I'm anxiously waiting for the day when the pictures of me running after it appear online.

Due to non-disclosure agreements and Google's secretive nature, we cannot reveal the identity of the driver that has agreed to risk life and limb to talk to you today. But we are satisfied with the proof he has provided us that he is who he says he is.

So jump in below. The driver will be here for the next hour to answer any and all of your questions about what goes in to driving the car, weird things he's seen, so on and so forth.

Have at it!

Source: http://jalopnik.com/ask-a-google-street-view-driver-anything-you-want-573386321

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Destin: Top 10 Favorite Things to Do | Kiss My Gumbo

by Greta on June 24, 2013

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My family and I have been bigs fans of vacationing in Destin, even before we had to travel farther than 4.5 hours. We have made many memories there and will continue to go back at least once or twice a year. Over the past 10 years, we have enjoyed the beaches and surrounding areas of Destin and even thought the kids are older, tend to flock to the same things. We tend to not eat out very much and spend a lot of quality family time together.

1. Enjoy the beach as much as humanly possible! If others get bored or burnt ? too bad (LOL).
2. Hanging with family and friends at a rented house or condo, playing board games and barbecuing.
3. Getting a Margarita at the Crab Trap beach bar. Yum!
4. The inflatable slides and trampolines near the Whale?s Tail. (they give military discounts)
5. Stopping by theoutlets on a rainy day or after the last day checkout.
6. Renting a boat, or better yet, getting invited on a boat and hanging at Crab Island.
7. Getting Red Velvet and Key Lime donuts from The Donut Hole.
8. Making a trip to Candymaker at Destin Commons.
9. Go Karts at The Track.
10. Hit up the swimming pool on the property for a break (kids not me).

And FYI ? I?m not getting paid to list any of these places.

As far as rental properties, most the time we stick with Resortquest.

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Source: http://www.kissmygumbo.com/2013/06/24/destin-top-10-favorite-things-to-do/

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Sennheiser HD 219s

Sennheiser's HD 219s headphones are a fairly unassuming pair compared with the typical, bulky, around-the-ear style pair we often see from the German manufacturer. At $79.95 (direct), the lightweight, comfortable headphones are also atypical in terms of their sound signature?yes, the usual crisp highs we associate with Sennheiser are here, but the low frequency response of the HD 219s seems less powerful. At top volumes, there is also a bit of distortion on deep bass tracks?worshippers of low frequencies should look elsewhere. Those seeking a more flat response-style pair in the price range will enjoy the HD 219s's overall sound signature. The headphones include an inline remote and microphone for mobile devices, and almost no accessories.

Design
The lightweight, supra-aural (on-ear) design of the HD 219s consists of a black matte plastic headband and pivoting earcups. The ear pads are amply cushioned, as is the underside of the headband, and the frame rests gently on both the ears and scalp, making this pair ideal for long listening sessions.

The earcups fold down flat, but the headphone frame doesn't collapse down for easier storage, nor do they ship with a carrying pouch to stuff them in. The only included accessory, in fact, is an adapter for the cable to fit Nokia-type phone jacks.

Call clarity through the inline mic is fine. The remote control has a single button that controls playback, track navigation, and call answering, depending on how many times you tap it and when. There's a volume slider built-in to the control compartment?a nice solution that keeps the remote universal while still allowing for volume adjustments. (Most three-button remotes, with volume controls, are for iPhones only, and most single button remotes lack volume controls.)

Performance
On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like the Knife's "Silent Shout," the HD 219s distorts a bit at maximum volume (on both the remote and the volume source?in this case, an iPhone 4S). At more moderate volumes, the distortion disappears, and the low frequency response is rich and articulate, but not as powerful as it would be on a pair with seriously boosted bass response.

Bill Callahan's voice on "Drover" is delivered with an ideal combination of crisp high-mid presence and rich low-mids, allowing a little bit of treble edge to add some definition to his smooth baritone vocals. The drumming on this track often sounds unnatural on heavily bass-boosted pairs, but the HD 219s doesn't seem to add much of anything in terms of low end to the constant thump of the drums, which can make the track sound a bit thin at times. If you favor a crisp response with nice detail throughout the mid-ranges, however, the HD 219s delivers?it's obviously just not a pair for bass fiends.

Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild" gets the best and worst of the HD 219s's sound signature. On the one hand, the attack of the kick drum loop gets a nice, crunchy attack that sometimes sounds dull on pairs that boost the bass too much. On the other, since the HD 219s doesn't do a whole lot of boosting of the lows, in general, the sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat fade into the background here. The focus on the mids makes the HD 219s an ideal pair for listening to vocals, however, whether they're Callahan's or Kanye West's?voices are clear and crisp, but never brittle or overly-sibilant.

Classical tracks, like John Adams' "The Chairman Dances," predictably end up being a showcase for the higher register strings and brass through the HD 219s?these are the instruments that tend to take the spotlight anyway on classical recordings, which are more transparently recorded and mixed than modern pop and rock records. This means that the lower register strings and deeper percussion hits don't get much of a boost at all. The track doesn't sound brittle, but again, this is a sound signature that will appeal more to flat response-seekers.

If you're not a deep bass lover and don't listen to a lot of electronic music or hip hop with deep low frequency content, it's easier to look past the distortion that only occurs at maximum (unwise) listening levels. But if you're looking for a pair in this price range that can pump out deep lows at high volumes, the Skullcandy Navigator is a solid option. If you're looking for crisp highs paired with a bit more bass than the HD 219s offers, the Sennheiser HD 429s is a well-balanced, distortion-free pair with solid bass and crisp highs. For a bit more, the Logitech UE 4000 offers great balance, as well. If all of these are out of your price range, the RHA SA950i is an affordable option that is far from perfect, but offers decent audio performance for the price. At $80, the Sennheiser HD 219s provides solid performance if you don't need the deep bass, but it's a non-option if you do, and it exists in a field full of capable headphones.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/txQYxmPUEtA/0,2817,2420740,00.asp

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