Auction Block –

Power3 Medical Products Inc. is using Glocap Advisors LLC to evaluate sale options. Power3, which operates a lab in Houston, engages in the discovery of protein footprints, pathways and mechanisms for diseases. Its patent-pending technology is used for early detection of diseases. Glocap, a boutique investment bank in New York focused on healthcare and life sciences, has helped companies obtain venture and private equity financing.

Also, fresh off restating earnings going back to 2002, San Jose-based Applied Imaging Corp. has retained Aquilo Partners to review its option as the company is now up for up for sale. Applied supplies imaging for the detection and characterization of chromosomes and molecular markers. The company says it has installed over 4,000 of its systems in over 1,000 labs. Advisor Aquilo is based in San Francisco.

There’s been at least one sizeable imaging deal in the space recently. Last year, Evercore Partners bought Diagnostic Imaging Group for $250 million in a recap out of its 2003-vintage East Evercore Capital Partners II fund.

Meanwhile, in the piping-hot-with-private-equity-deals restaurant industry, popular eatery Cracker Barrel is in the process of interviewing investment banks to represent it in changing its capital structure. On the news, perhaps reflecting the faith investors have that a restaurant company can always find a buyer, shares of the $2 billion market cap firm leapt 24%. The company has been busy buying back shares totaling $750 million in just over the last few years. It has EBITDA of $265 million and sales of $2.6 billion.

Elsewhere, Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp., which calls itself “the world’s primary silver producer” is thinking of getting rid of its Coeur Silver Valley assets in Idaho, which includes the Galen silver mine.

The asset has just been reviewed by the company, which was looking to improve the mine’s operating performance. One of the company’s main motivations for bailing on the asset is the desire to invest in high-growth silver opportunities in South America, according to a statement by Dennis Wheeler, the company’s Chairman and CEO.