Kent Lake Urges Quanterix Management To Address Key Questions Regarding Its Proposed Transaction With Akoya Biosciences; Believes Proposed Transaction With Akoya Significantly Undervalues Quanterix; Encourages Shareholders To Vote Against Transaction To Protect Long-term Value Of Their Investment

Author: Benzinga Newsdesk | March 17, 2025 04:09pm

Believes Proposed Transaction with Akoya Significantly Undervalues Quanterix

Encourages Shareholders to Vote Against Transaction to Protect Long-Term Value of their Investment

Kent Lake PR LLC ("Kent Lake") is a holder of 7.47% of the outstanding common stock of Quanterix Corporation ("Quanterix" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:QTRX). Kent Lake has previously issued a public presentation detailing its opposition to the Company's proposed transaction (the "Transaction") with Akoya Biosciences ("Akoya") (NASDAQ:AKYA), and has also nominated three highly qualified, independent candidates for election to the Company's Board of Directors (the "Board").

Kent Lake urges Quanterix management to address the following questions related to the Transaction on its earnings call today:

• Disproportionate Value Distribution: Why does Quanterix continue to pursue a transaction that allocates over 82% of the combined company enterprise value to Akoya shareholders and less than 18% to Quanterix shareholders?
• Akoya Going Concern: When evaluating Akoya's liquidity and going concern issues, as well as its potential impact on Quanterix shareholders' value, what key findings and assumptions did the Quanterix Board review and rely on to inform their M&A evaluation and approve the terms of this merger, which awards Akoya shareholders a significant valuation premium on all metrics compared to Quanterix shareholders in spite of Akoya's going concern disclosures?
• Conflicts of Interest: To what extent was Dr. Ivana Magovčević-Liebisch allowed to attend meetings, participate in discussions, and vote on matters related to the Akoya merger, despite her conflict of interest as a Board member at Akoya's key commercial diagnostic partner?
• Material NIH Risk: Given that uncertainty around National Institutes of Health ("NIH") funding has led to a significant revaluation across the sector, and this uncertainty is material enough for peer companies to begin including new NIH-related risk factor disclosures in their FY 2024 10-K filings, how can Quanterix shareholders reasonably rely on the forward-looking statements, financial projections, fairness opinions, and purported merger benefits being presented that don't account for or contemplate this new material risk?
• Akoya's Process: Given the S-4 discloses that Quanterix was bidding against itself by the end of the process, and that all other bidders had already walked away without making final offers due to concerning issues such as Akoya's high cash burn and debt, how is the Quanterix Board integrating this information into their fiduciary framework to continue to recommend the Merger?
• The Board's Recommendation: Considering these outstanding issues and insufficient disclosures, what steps does the Quanterix Board plan to take to ensure they are fulfilling their fiduciary duties and are not required to withdraw their Merger recommendation?

Posted In: AKYA QTRX