Pfizer will pursue AstraZeneca
Pfizer publicly announced its interest in acquiring AstraZeneca of Britain Monday, in what would be one of the biggest in an already swelling series of deal efforts among drugmakers.
In a statement, Pfizer said it was willing to pay $98.7 billion. That would make it one of the largest-ever acquisition efforts in the pharmaceutical industry, surpassing Pfizer’s $90 billion takeover of Warner-Lambert 14 years ago.
Pfizer’s prospective bid was valued at 46.61 pounds a share, roughly 30 percent above where AstraZeneca was trading at the beginning of the year.
The move is aimed at putting pressure on AstraZeneca, which has turned down a number of informal takeover approaches from Pfizer.
AstraZeneca shares surged 16.1 percent, to 47.37 pounds, in afternoon trading in London Monday. Shares in Pfizer were up 2.6 percent in premarket trading, at $31.53.
On Monday, AstraZeneca said in a statement it agreed to meet in January with Pfizer, which made a preliminary offer of cash and stock representing a value of 46.61 pounds a share – the same amount Pfizer revealed Monday.
AstraZeneca said its board determined in January the offer “very significantly undervalued AstraZeneca and its prospects.”
The company said Saturday, Pfizer’s chairman requested the companies make an announcement before the markets opened Monday saying they had entered discussions regarding a potential deal, though Pfizer did not make a specific proposal. AstraZeneca’s board declined.
AstraZeneca advised shareholders to take no action Monday and said it was making its statement without any agreement with or approval by Pfizer.
The pharmaceutical industry helped push deal activity to heights unseen since before the financial crisis of 2008.
On April 22 alone, drugmakers announced $74 billion worth of potential deals, including the potential takeover of the maker of Botox and a complicated series of asset swaps between Novartis of Switzerland and GlaxoSmithKline of Britain.
In many cases, these companies have been driven to deals to find new areas of growth as onetime blockbuster treatments lose patent protection.
Instead of pouring money into researching new products that could sputter out, they are looking to buy more of what they hope are likely winners.