Ipsen had an option to buy up to 40% of Tercica through to a 2006 deal. It will buy the remaining 44.9 million outstanding shares for $9 each.

That price reflects a 104 percent premium on Wednesday’s cling price of $4.41 per share.

The stock hist $8.90 today before contracting in the afternoon. No volume spike indicating advance buying tipped the company’s hand.

We consider the speculative upside negligible at this point (at least compared to today’s run-up), at less than 10%.

Our momentum play Sequenom, Inc. (Nasdaq:SQNM), which had soared over 20% on news that its nucleic acid technology is able to detect Down’s syndrome, continued to pack on the shekels today, gaining an additional 20%.

Not bad for not working for a day!

Source: Tercica, Inc. Stock Doubles on Acquisition News