May 28 2014
Under United Kingdom takeover rules, Pfizer can submit another bid in six months, although it is unclear if it will do so or instead focus on growing its own business.
The New York Times: Pfizer Says Its Bid for AstraZeneca Is Dead
On the final day for Pfizer to decide whether to abandon the plan, it said it did not intend to make an offer for AstraZeneca. Last week, the British company rejected what Pfizer had called its final offer. The cash-and-stock bid, which valued AstraZeneca at about $119 billion, would have created the world's largest drug company (Anderson, 5/26).
The Wall Street Journal: Spurned by AstraZeneca, Pfizer Walks Away
Pfizer had been chasing AstraZeneca since November in an effort to create the world's biggest pharmaceutical company. Pfizer last proposed a deal valued at $120 billion. But AstraZeneca was able to run out the clock on Monday's deadline under U.K. takeover rules for reaching an agreement. Under those rules, Pfizer could submit another offer for AstraZeneca in six months. Pfizer Chairman and Chief Executive Ian Read didn't rule out resuming discussions with AstraZeneca but said Pfizer was going to focus on "lots of great opportunities" for growth inside the company and to look at other potential deals (Rockoff, Plumridge and Cimilluca, 5/26).
|
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
|