Cancer Genetics is pursuing a strategy that differs from Facebook's IPO plan, expert says.

A Rutherford, N.J.-based start-up developing tools to diagnose cancer is planning to launch an initial public offering this week under the long shadow of Facebook's long-awaited blockbuster IPO.

Cancer Genetics Inc. is looking to raise more than $50 million with an initial public offering of 4 million shares priced between $11 to $13 a share.

The offering comes as the IPO market is struggling back toward its pre-recession level of activity, although it remains well below the peak of the dot-com fueled boom of the 1990s. If Cancer Genetics prices this week, it will be the first IPO in North Jersey since Park Ridge-based SeaCube Container Leasing Ltd. went public in October 2010. The ticker symbol would be CGIX, and the shares would trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

How the Facebook IPO will affect that of Cancer Genetics is unclear. David Menlow, president of IPOfinancial.com, said he thinks it "greatly hampers their chance of success."

"Investors are not interested in paying attention to anything other than the 800-ton gorilla in the room," which is Facebook, he said.

But Jay R. Ritter, a professor of finance at University of Florida in Gainesville, who tracks IPOs, said the two companies are playing to different investors.

Cancer Genetics, which is planning its IPO for Friday, is looking to attract institutional investors interested in holding company stock for the long period it takes for a biotech company to make a medical breakthrough, he said. In contrast, many Facebook investors are mainly interested in the chance of making a quick profit if the stock takes off, he said.

"Facebook is getting huge amounts of attention," Ritter said. "Lots of investors are coming out of the woodwork who do not have an interest in buying biomedical companies."

Cancer Genetics, founded in 1999, is focused on developing and commercializing tests and services to diagnose, predict and help treat hematological, urogenital and HPV-associated cancers. The top executives at Cancer Genetics are Chairman Raju S.K. Chaganti, Chief Executive Officer Panna L. Sharma and Elizabeth A. Czerepak, chief financial officer.

Originally posted here:
Cancer Genetics IPO Faces Facebook

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