Just for a second, it had the makings of an old-fashioned M&A shootout...

In an SEC filing outlining the finer points of their planned sale to Wright Medical Technology, BioMimetic Therapeutics executives tell the story of how the deal came to be last summer and fall. Among the details is the fact that, with the Wright interest official, Goldman Sachs bankers in late September contacted 15 companies identified by the BioMimetic board to see if they, too, might want to submit a bid. Two of those companies showed some interest and one signed a non-disclosure agreement. But the dance ended soon after that entity's representatives said they were not inclined to move forward because BioMimetic doesn't yet have the necessary FDA approvals for its Augment bone graft product.

For more background on the deal — including the nugget that large BioMimetic shareholder Novo A/S stood ready to provide debt financing if the Wright deal fell through — click here.