BriteSmile Stock Up After Company Rejects $42 Million Takeover Offer

SAN FRANCISCO -- BriteSmile Inc. stock closed up Monday after the teeth-whitening technology company rejected an unsolicited takeover bid from privately held Futuredontics Inc.

Shares of Walnut Creek-based BriteSmile closed up 43 cents, or 20 percent, at $2.58 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, after earlier touching a high of $3.30.

Futuredontics, a dental referral company based in Los Angeles, had offered $2 in cash and $2 in Futuredontics stock for every share of BriteSmile stock, valuing the company at $42 million.

"We didn't expect the bid," said John L. Reed, director of BriteSmile, in a phone interview on Monday. "We had no conversations with them (Futuredontics) until their offer came in."

BriteSmile's board rejected the bid on Sunday, because Futuredontics didn't have the money to complete the transaction, BriteSmile saw the reverse-merger structure of the bid as "not feasible," and investors holding 55 percent of BriteSmile stock disapproved of the proposal's terms, BriteSmile said.