NitroMed Courted

Remember that NitroMed (NTMD)/Archemix deal that I mentioned briefly back in November? Well, it's not going so smoothly. One of the largest NitroMed shareholders, Deerfield Management, objected to the whole idea, and proposed buying the company itself.

Last week the company adjourned its shareholder meeting until Tuesday to consider the offer, and Tuesday they adjourned again. Deerfield started off at fifty cents per share, and has slowly raised its offer to $0.80. You have to think that that's the sort of behavior that they would have objected to in some other suitor for the company, but hey. . .