In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology and life science news:

  • Syngenta rejects Monsanto buyout offer
  • PRA International income surges
  • Fitbit files for $100 million IPO
  • Is Yelp for sale?
  • Google launches startup campus in South Korea
  • Pandora wins suit against songwriters

The details:

  • Syngenta says no to Monsanto

Syngenta has rejected a $45 billion takeover from Monsanto.

The news broke early Friday with Reuters quoting Syngenta’s board as saying the Monsanto offer undervalued the agrochemical giant.

A merger would have created a firm with $31 billion in annual sales.

  • PRA International income surges

Raleigh-based contract research organization PRA International reported a profit of nearly $26 million, or 41 cents per share, on Wednesday. That beat analysts’ expectations by 10 cents.

Income rose 7 percent to $332 million.

  • Wearable fitness tracker maker Fitbit files for $100M IPO

Fitbit, the maker of a popular line of wearable fitness-tracking devices, has filed for an initial public offering worth up to $100 million.

Fitbit’s watch-sized devices can track how many steps a wearer takes and estimate how many calories they are burning, how far they’ve traveled, and how long they’ve been active. More advanced devices can track sleep duration and quality, heart rate and running speed, and they can be synced up with smartphone apps.

In its filing with regulators, Fitbit listed among its competitors Apple Inc., which recently launched the much-ballyhooed Apple Watch that includes health and fitness tracking capabilities.

Fitbit says it has sold almost 21 million devices since 2011, but more than half of those sales were made in 2014. The company reported $745.4 million in revenue in 2014, almost triple its total a year earlier, and that pace has continued in 2015.

The company reported a profit of $131.8 million in 2014 and $48 million in the first quarter of 2015.
Fitbit Inc. intends to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “FIT.”

  • Yelp may put out ‘for sale’ sign after 1st quarter letdown

Yelp may be heading for the auction block amid concerns about the online business review service’s ability to compete against larger Internet companies for digital advertising.

Investment bankers working with Yelp are courting potential suitors, according to a report Thursday in The Wall Street Journal, raising investors’ hope that the San Francisco company will be sold. The Journal cited people it did not identify who are familiar with the matter and cautioned that Yelp Inc. still might not pursue a sale.

Yelp declined to comment under its policy against responding to rumor or speculation.

If Yelp solicits bids, Jefferies analyst Brian Pitz believes Google Inc. would be the most logical buyer. Other leading candidates include Yahoo Inc., Facebook Inc. and Priceline Group Inc., which could use Yelp to complement its recently acquired OpenTable service that books restaurant reservations.

The prospect of a sale emerged a week after Yelp disappointed investors with a first-quarter report and a revenue forecast that lagged analysts’ estimates. The letdown triggered a sell-off that hammered Yelp’s already slumping stock, which lost more than half its value in eight months.

Yelp’s stock bounced back Thursday, surging $8.79, or 23 percent, to close at $47.01. Despite the rally, the shares still remain below where they stood before last week’s first-quarter dud and well off their 52-week high of $86.88 reached in September.

A sale of Yelp might fetch around $4 billion, based on the company’s current market value.

  • Google opens its first Asia startup campus in Seoul

Google’s first campus for startups and entrepreneurs in Asia has opened in a glitzy neighborhood of South Korea’s capital Seoul.

Google on Friday cited South Korea’s flourishing startup scene and pervasive smartphone use as the reasons for picking Seoul after opening similar sites in London and Tel Aviv.

Located in Gangnam, Campus Seoul rents out its 2,000 square meter (21,528 square foot) space to startups.

It also plans to host events for tech startups and for female entrepreneurs with children.

  • Pandora wins appeal against songwriters society ASCAP

A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of Internet streaming service Pandora in a dispute with the songwriters rights society ASCAP.

ASCAP — the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers — had been seeking to raise what Pandora pays songwriters. But because of its enormous clout, representing about half of all composers and publishers in the nation, the government has put conditions on its activities for decades.

On Wednesday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said ASCAP must still license its works to Pandora at a court-set rate.

Major music publishers EMI, Sony and Universal had sought a partial withdrawal from ASCAP so they could cut a direct deal with new media users like Pandora. The appeals court said they could not partially withdraw.