Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Capital Stock

v2.4.0.6
Capital Stock
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2011
Capital Stock [Abstract]  
Capital Stock
10.
Capital Stock

Series B Preference Shares

In December 2003, the Company issued 2,959 Series B preference shares to Genentech, Inc. in repayment of $29.6 million of the outstanding balance under a convertible subordinated debt agreement. Pursuant to the rights of the Series B preference shares, the holder of Series B preference shares was not entitled to receive any dividends on the Series B preference shares. The Series B preference shares ranked senior with respect to rights on liquidation, winding-up and dissolution of the Company to all classes of common stock. Upon any voluntary or involuntary liquidation, dissolution or winding-up of the Company, the holder of Series B preference shares would have been entitled to receive $10,000 per Series B preference share (or $29.6 million in the aggregate) before any distribution was made on the common stock. The holder of the Series B preference shares had no voting rights, except as required under Bermuda law.

The holder of Series B preference shares had the right to convert Series B preference shares into shares of common stock at a conversion price equal to $116.25 per share, subject to adjustment in certain circumstances.

In April of 2011, the 2,959 Series B convertible preference shares were converted by Genentech into 254,560 shares of common stock. The $29.6 million liquidation preference associated with the Series B preference shares was eliminated as a result of this conversion.

Shareholder Rights Plan

On February 26, 2003, the Company's Board of Directors unanimously adopted a Shareholder Rights Plan (“Rights Plan”), which was designed to extend the provisions of a similar rights plan originally adopted in October of 1993. Under the Rights Plan, Preferred Stock Purchase Rights (“Rights”) are authorized and granted at the rate of fifteen Rights for each outstanding share of common stock. Each Right entitles the registered holder of common stock to buy a fraction of a share of the new series of Preferred Stock (“Series A Preferred Stock”) at an exercise price of $30.00, subject to adjustment. The Rights will be exercisable and will detach from the common stock, only if a person or group acquires 20 percent or more of the common stock, announces a tender or exchange offer that if consummated will result in a person or group beneficially owning 20 percent or more of the common stock or if the Board of Directors declares a person or group owning 10 percent or more of the outstanding common stock to be an Adverse Person (as defined in the Rights Plan). Once exercisable, each Right will entitle the holder (other than the acquiring person) to purchase units of Series A Preferred Stock (or, in certain circumstances, common stock of the acquiring person) with a value of twice the Rights' exercise price. The Company will generally be entitled to redeem the Rights at $0.015 per Right at any time until the close of business on the tenth day after the Rights become exercisable. The Rights will expire at the close of business on December 31, 2012.

Equity Line of Credit

On October 21, 2008, the Company entered into a common share purchase agreement (the “2008 Purchase Agreement”) with Azimuth Opportunity Ltd. (“Azimuth”), pursuant to which it obtained a committed equity line of credit facility (the “2008 Facility”) under which the Company could sell up to $60 million of its registered common stock to Azimuth over a 24-month period, subject to certain conditions and limitations. The 2008 Purchase Agreement required a minimum share price of $1.00 per share to allow the Company to issue shares to Azimuth under the 2008 Facility. However, at its election, Azimuth could buy shares below the threshold price at a negotiated discount. The Company was not obligated to utilize any of the $60 million 2008 Facility and remained free to enter other financing transactions. Shares under the 2008 Facility were sold pursuant to a prospectus which forms a part of a registration statement declared effective by the SEC on May 29, 2008. At the end of the third quarter of 2009, the 2008 Facility was no longer in effect, and no additional shares could be issued thereunder.
 
From the inception of the 2008 Facility in October of 2008 through December 31, 2009, the Company sold a total of 2,815,228 shares of its common stock to Azimuth for aggregate gross proceeds of $33.9 million. This included the sale of 0.3 million shares under the 2008 Facility in December of 2008 and 2.3 million shares in two transactions in September of 2009 that Azimuth agreed to purchase notwithstanding that the purchase prices were below the minimum price of $1.00 required by the 2008 Purchase Agreement. Under the terms of the 2008 Purchase Agreement, the Company negotiated a discount rate (excluding placement agent fees) of 8.86% for the sale in December of 2008 and 8.0% for the sales in September of 2009. Prior to the successful conclusion of negotiations, Azimuth was not obligated to purchase these shares. Offering expenses incurred from inception of the 2008 Facility through December 31, 2009 related to sales to Azimuth were $0.7 million.

In July of 2010, the Company entered into a common share purchase agreement (the “2010 Purchase Agreement”) with Azimuth, pursuant to which the Company obtained a committed equity line of credit facility (the “2010 Facility”) under which the Company could sell up to $30 million of its registered common stock to Azimuth over a 12-month period, subject to certain conditions and limitations. The 2010 Purchase Agreement provided that the Company could determine, in its sole discretion, the timing, dollar amount and floor price per share of each draw down under the 2010 Facility, subject to certain conditions and limitations and that the number and price of shares sold in each draw down were generally to be determined by a contractual formula designed to approximate fair market value, less a discount.  The 2010 Purchase Agreement also provided that from time to time and in the Company's sole discretion, it could grant Azimuth the right to exercise one or more options to purchase additional shares during each draw down pricing period for the amount of shares based upon the maximum option dollar amount and the option threshold price specified by the Company.  The Company also agreed to issue 111,111 shares of common stock to Azimuth upon execution of the agreement relating to the 2010 Facility, in consideration of Azimuth's execution and delivery of that agreement.  Shares under the 2010 Facility and the shares the Company agreed to issue to Azimuth upon execution of the agreement relating to the 2010 Facility were sold pursuant to a prospectus which forms a part of a registration statement declared effective by the SEC on May 29, 2008.  In August of 2010, the Company sold a total of 3,421,407 shares of common stock under the 2010 Facility for aggregate gross proceeds of $14.2 million, representing the maximum number of shares that could be sold under the 2010 Facility.  As a result, the 2010 Facility is no longer in effect, and no additional shares can be issued thereunder.

Registered Direct Offerings

In May of 2009, the Company entered into a definitive agreement with an institutional investor to sell 784,313 units, with each unit consisting of one share of the Company's common stock and a warrant to purchase 0.50 of a share of common stock, for gross proceeds of approximately $10.0 million, before deducting placement agent fees and estimated offering expenses of $0.8 million, in a registered direct offering. The investor purchased the units at a price of $12.75 per unit. The warrants, which represent the right to acquire an aggregate of up to 392,157shares of common stock, were exercisable at any time on or after May 15, 2009 and prior to May 20, 2014 at an exercise price of $15.30 per share. In February of 2010, the holders of these warrants agreed to amend the terms of their warrants to remove the Eliminated Adjustment Provisions and the exercise price of these warrants was reduced from $15.30 per share to $0.015 per share. In the first quarter of 2010, the holders of these warrants exercised all warrants, acquiring 392,157 shares of common stock for an aggregate exercise price of $5,882.

In June of 2009, the Company entered into a definitive agreement with certain institutional investors to sell 695,652 units, with each unit consisting of one share of the Company's common stock and a warrant to purchase 0.50 of a share of common stock, for gross proceeds of approximately $12.0 million, before deducting placement agent fees and estimated offering expenses of $0.8 million, in a second registered direct offering. The investor purchased the units at a price of $17.25 per unit. The warrants, which represent the right to acquire an aggregate of up to 347,826 shares of common stock, are exercisable at any time on or prior to December 10, 2014 at an exercise price of $19.50 per share. As of December 31, 2011 all of these warrants were outstanding.

ATM Agreements

In the third quarter of 2009, the Company entered into an At  Market Issuance Sales Agreement (the “2009 ATM Agreement”), under which the Company could sell up to 1.7 million shares of its common stock from time to time through Wm Smith & Co. (“Wm Smith”), as the agent for the offer and sale of the shares. Wm Smith could sell these shares by any method permitted by law deemed to be an “at the market” offering as defined in Rule 415 of the Securities Act of 1933, including but not limited to sales made directly on The NASDAQ Global Market, on any other existing trading market for the Company's common stock or to or through a market maker. Wm Smith could also sell the shares in privately negotiated transactions, subject to the Company's approval. The Company paid Wm Smith a commission equal to 3% of the gross proceeds of all shares sold through it as sales agent under the 2009 ATM Agreement but in no event less than $0.02 per share. Shares sold under the 2009 ATM Agreement were sold pursuant to a prospectus which formed a part of a registration statement declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on May 29, 2008.  From the inception of the 2009 ATM Agreement through October of 2010, the Company sold a total of 1.7 million shares of common stock through Wm Smith for aggregate gross proceeds of $12.2 million, including 1.4 million shares sold in 2010 for aggregate gross proceeds of $9.3 million. Total offering expenses related to these sales from inception to October of 2010 were $0.4 million.
 
In the third quarter of 2010, the Company entered into an At Market Issuance Sales Agreement (the “2010 ATM Agreement”), with Wm Smith and McNicoll, Lewis & Vlak LLC (the “Agents”), under which the Company could sell shares of its common stock from time to time through the Agents, as the agents for the offer and sale of the shares, in an aggregate amount not to exceed the amount that can be sold under the Company's registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-148342) filed with the SEC on December 26, 2007 and declared effective by the SEC on May 29, 2008. The Agents could sell the shares by any method permitted by law deemed to be an “at the market” offering as defined in Rule 415 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), including without limitation sales made directly on The NASDAQ Global Market, on any other existing trading market for the Company's common stock or to or through a market maker. The Agents could also sell the shares in privately negotiated transactions, subject to the Company's prior approval. From the inception of the 2010 ATM Agreement through May of 2011, the Company sold a total of 7,560,862 shares of its common stock under this agreement for aggregate gross proceeds of $34.0 million, including 821,386 shares sold in 2011 for aggregate gross proceeds of $4.4 million. Total offering expenses incurred related to sales under the 2010 ATM Agreement from inception to May of 2011 were $1.0 million, including $0.1 million incurred in 2011. In May of 2011, 2010 ATM Agreement expired by its terms, and there will be no further issuances under this facility.

On February 4, 2011, the Company entered into an At Market Issuance Sales Agreement (the “2011 ATM Agreement”), with McNicoll, Lewis & Vlak LLC (now known as MLV & Co. LLC, “MLV”), under which it may sell shares of its common stock from time to time through the MLV, as the agent for the offer and sale of the shares, in an aggregate amount not to exceed the amount that can be sold under the Company's registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-172197) filed with the SEC on February 11, 2011 and amended on March 10, 2011, June 3, 2011 and January 3, 2012, which was most recently declared effective by the SEC on January 17, 2012. MLV may sell the shares by any method permitted by law deemed to be an “at the market” offering as defined in Rule 415 of the Securities Act, including without limitation sales made directly on The NASDAQ Global Market, on any other existing trading market for the Company's common stock or to or through a market maker. MLV may also sell the shares in privately negotiated transactions, subject to the Company's prior approval. From the inception of the 2011 ATM Agreement through December 31, 2011, the Company sold a total of 5,286,952 shares of common stock under this agreement for aggregate gross proceeds of $11.3 million.  Total offering expenses incurred related to sales under the 2011 ATM Agreement from inception to December 31, 2011, were $0.3 million.  Subsequent to December 31, 2011, through March 12, 2012, 2,285,375 additional shares of common stock were sold through MLV for aggregate gross proceeds of $3.3 million.  Total offering expenses related to these sales were approximately $0.1 million.

Underwritten Offering

In February of 2010, the Company completed an underwritten offering of 2.8 million units, with each unit consisting of one share of the Company's common stock and a warrant to purchase 0.45 of a share of common stock, for gross proceeds of approximately $21 million. As of December 31, 2011 all of these warrants were outstanding.