Shareholders of Intermagnetics General Corp. have filed two class action lawsuits in an attempt to halt the purchase of the company by Royal Philips Electronics of Holland for $1.3 billion, The Business Journal of Milwaukee reports.

Intermagnetics is named as defendant in both suits, though one includes Philips as a secondary defendant. The suits contain the allegation that the directors of Intermagnetics were in violation of “their fiduciary duties, including by failing to publicly announce an open bidding process or otherwise seek additional officers to acquire Intermagnetics, and by failing to provide full disclosure to certain material financial information," the Journal reports.
           
The suits seek to put a stop to the acquisition. But if all goes according to plan, Intermagnetics' Latham, N.Y., headquarters — which produces patient monitors and MR imaging system components — would become the global headquarters for the MR division of Philips.

For its part, Intermagnetics said in the filing that it "believes these allegations are without merit and intends to contest them vigorously.”

Additional comments from Intermagnetics and Philips regarding the suits were not available at press time.