Markets

Madness at Sequenom: Interim CEO Gets a Pay Rise; Stock Rises 18%

By Jim Edwards

Updated on: October 8, 2009 / 12:01 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

Sequenom just announced that all its data is bogus. It is under investigation by the SEC, NASDAQ, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI. The board has fired the CEO, the R&D chief, the CFO, the commercial ops chief and two other execs. The Down Syndrome test development program now has to start over, from scratch. What do you do?

If you answered: Give the new CEO and R&D chief a pay rise and buy the stock, you answered correctly!

Sequenom announced today that its interim CEO and R&D chief (Harry Hixson and Ronald Lindsay, respectively) will get larger base salaries than the disgraced execs they replaced, CEO Harry Stylli (pictured) and R&D chief Elizabeth Dragon.

Here are their base salaries, according to this filing from the SEC:

Name, age, base salary
CEO Harry F. Hixson, Jr., 71, $475,000 (up from $441,000 under Stylli)
svp R&D Ronald M. Lindsay, 61, $325,000 (up from $279,000 under Dragon)
Finance chief Justin J. File, 39, n/a

The compensation packages of the old crew can be found this proxy filing. Only File is not described as an "interim" appointment. The filing does not give him the CFO title, but rather describes him as "our principal financial and accounting officer."

Separately, Sequenom's stock is moving upward, gaining about 18 percent at the time of writing from a few days ago when it announced its implosion:

Why? Crazy day traders, that's why:

A day trading favorite, Sequenom (Nasdaq: SQNM) is spiking 12% or $0.25 to $3.29. Briefing Trader is reporting that the spike is due to rumors that Sequenom might put itself up for sale.
Sequenom is an extremely volatile stock that has traded from a low of $2.83 to a high of $25.99 during the past 52 weeks. Sequenom's market cap stands at $204.89 million.
Many shorts have cashed in on SQNM as 35% of its float is short the stock.

And here:

Sequenom, Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM) is continuing to hold up despite it being a ship with no real captains and no real crew.
This one rose over 10% yesterday to $3.28 on over 12 million shares and shares are up almost 6% at $3.47 on 135,000 shares as of 9:01 AM EST. We'll be keeping a close eye on this company, particularly as the company is now effectively an at-risk or going concern in our opinion.

So, situation normal at Sequenom, then.

Previously:
Madness at Sequenom: CEO, 6 Others Ousted for Bogus Data in Down Sydrome Test