Dean Foods buys rest of White Wave

BOULDER ? Dean Foods Co., a Dallas-based food and beverage company, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the 64 percent equity interest in White Wave Inc. that it does not currently own.

White Wave, based in Boulder, is a manufacturer of soyfoods and makes Silk, the country’s leading refrigerated soymilk. White Wave had sales of $125 million for the 12 months ending March 31.

The remaining interest in White Wave will cost Dean Foods $189 million. Dean Foods had already paid $36 million for a 36 percent stake in White Wave.

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Production and management will remain in Boulder, and White Wave’s founder and President Steve Demos will report to Gregg Engles, chairman and chief executive officer of Dean. NaPro gets shot in arm BOULDER ? Shares of Boulder-based NaPro BioTherapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: NPRO) jumped 55 percent May 9, the day after NaPro and its partner, Abbott Laboratories Inc., won U.S. approval to sell an injectable form of paclitaxel, the most widely used anti-cancer drug in the United States.

The product will be launched immediately, said Abbott, the drugmaker based in suburban Chicago.

NaPro stock jumped from $3.02 to $8.50 per share May 9, the biggest percentage gainer on Nasdaq that day. Abbott added 44 cents to $52.84 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Paclitaxel is the generic equivalent of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s Taxol, which is used to treat patients who have failed with other treatments for metastatic ovary and breast cancer.

Abbott and NaPro have collaborated since July 1999 to bring paclitaxel to the U.S. market. NaPro processes the raw material for the drug primarily from cultivated yew trees. Abbott distributes and markets the final product. The drug could bring Abbott and NaPro between $70 million and $100 million a year in sales, according to one analyst.

NaPro develops and licenses drugs made from natural products.Sheldahl files for bankruptcyLONGMONT ? Sheldahl Inc., an automotive, electronics and data communications product manufacturer with a 100-employee branch in Longmont, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota in late April.

The Northfield, Minn.-based company will sell its assets to its three largest shareholders: Ampersand Venture Capital, Molex Inc. and Morgenthaler Partners. Although the company expects to lay off nearly 200 of its 900 worldwide employees, specifics on the Longmont branch were not available. The company expects to continue operations while transitioning into its concentration of core materials and flex interconnect.RPI beset by two setbacks BOULDER ? Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Boulder-based pharmaceutical company, experienced a 54 percent drop in the value of its stock after it announced major setbacks for two of its experimental drugs.

First, its Angiozyme drug for breast cancer did not achieve the hoped-for results in its phase II clinical trials. The company had hoped to pitch Angiozyme as a single-agent therapy for metastatic breast cancer, but tests revealed that it works best when used in combination with other drugs.

RPI also stopped phase II trials of its hepatitis C drug, Heptazyme, after a monkey went blind during the study. The animal was receiving three times the anticipated maximum dose for humans. The company said it didn’t know if the hepatitis drug had anything to do with the blindness.Rogue Wave teams with Microsoft BOULDER ? Rogue Wave Software Inc., a Boulder-based software and consulting services company, has signed an agreement with Microsoft Corp. to provide significant performance enhancements to users of Rogue Wave SourcePro C++ products on a Windows platform.

As part of the agreement, Rogue Wave and Microsoft will collaborate to improve the performance of SourcePro C++ products for the deployment phase, helping increase the power and value of SourcePro C++ products and the Windows operating system for large company applications. Level 3 offers to buy software firm BROOMFIELD — Level 3 Communications Inc., which operates a high-speed

telecommunications network, said it would buy Software Spectrum Inc. in a continuing effort to expand into software distribution.

Broomfield-based Level 3 wants to buy the business software reseller for $37 per share in cash, or more than double the price of Dallas-based Software Spectrum shares at May 1 stock market close, for a total of about $122 million. Software Spectrum shares closed at $16.66 on the Nasdaq May 1, off 52-week highs of $20.

The deal, subject to approval by at least two-thirds of Dallas-based Software Spectrum’s shareholders and regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the third quarter.

With the addition of Dallas-based Software Spectrum, Level 3 expands its entry into the business software delivery arena, a move that began with the addition of Corporate Software, first announced in February.

For the nine months ended Jan. 31, Software Spectrum reported net income of $9.1 million on sales of $1.05 billion.