As my colleague recently mentioned, new doesn’t always mean better. That became true last week for anyone waiting for a new offer from Roche to acquire Genentech. Roche announced its new plan to buy the company last Friday: Roche will approach Genentech’s shareholders directly with an offer of $86.50 per share or $42 billion. The tender offer will be made formally within two weeks.

A hostile bid at a lowered price wasn’t the deal expected by analysts, who were predicting a few weeks ago that Roche would present a sweetened deal of up to $95 per share. At the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco last month, Roche CFO Erich Hunziker said the deal was “on track” and that, “Everything is going as planned.” This new plan has to be disappointing for Genentech, which rejected a July 2008 offer of $89 per share (approximately $43.7 billion) because the special committee that reviewed the deal felt it “substantially undervalues the company.”

Fortune recently named Genentech #7 on its list of “100 Best Companies to Work For,” in part because it “continued to resist a takeover by shareholder Roche” and implemented programs to provide employees with retention bonuses and severance in the event of a merger. For a company that is used to scoring high on Fortune’s list, what does the proposed offer mean for Genentech’s employees and culture? In Roche’s announcement last week, Severin Schwan, CEO of the Roche Group, said, “We have great respect for our colleagues at Genentech and we will take the necessary steps to nurture Genentech’s innovative and unique science-driven culture.”

Last week Genentech urged shareholders to sit tight until its special committee completes its formal evaluation of the deal, which will happen 10 days after the tender offer commences.