Only days after BioClinica increased its purchase offer to acquire etrials Worldwide and the two companies agreed to proceed with their acquisition agreement, that agreement has been terminated.

BioClinica increased its purchase offer last week after eClinical vendor etrials received an unsolicited offer from another company. etrials has now entered into a new merger agreement with that company, now identified as Merge Healthcare, at a cost of $500,000, plus reasonable out-of-pocket expenses,  to terminate the agreement with BioClinica.

"We have decided it would not be in the best interest of our shareholders to pursue this acquisition further. Although we are disappointed with the outcome, we will continue to actively look for other acquisitions that would add value and expand our eClinical service offerings," said BioClinica president and CEO Mark Weinstein in a company statement.

Under the terms of the acquisition agreement with Merge, a health IT solutions provider based in Milwaukee, Wisc., the sale will be consummated through a tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of etrials stock. The Merge tender offer consists of a mix of $0.80 in cash and 0.3448 shares of Merge common stock for each share of etrials common stock, representing an aggregate value of $1.70 per share. According to published reports, the sale price may be as much as $20 million.

The transaction is expected to close at the end of the third quarter.