Pfizer Inc, the world’s largest drugmaker, is in talks to acquire Wyeth in a deal that may be worth as much as US$60 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the talks.
Negotiations have been going on for several months, final agreement isn’t imminent and talks may yet collapse because of the fragile state of financial markets, the newspaper said. New York-based Pfizer may pay in stock and cash, the Journal said.
A combination would create a drugmaker with sales of more than US$70 billion and bestselling medicines including the cholesterol pill Lipitor and Enbrel for arthritis. Pfizer chief executive officer Jeffrey Kindler has already announced plans to fire staff and reorganize operations to cut costs and accelerate the development of more profitable medications.
“For Pfizer it makes a lot of sense, for Wyeth I don’t know,” said Chris Albani, a Tokyo-based partner at PRTM who has advised pharmaceutical companies for about 20 years.
Ray Kerins, a spokesman for Pfizer, said by telephone that the company didn’t comment on what he referred to as “market speculation.”
Doug Petkus, a spokesman for Wyeth, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail and voice-mail left on his office phone after normal business hours.
Pfizer fell 1.5 percent to US$17.21 on Thursday in New York, valuing the company at US$116 billion. Madison, New Jersey-based Wyeth dropped 1.9 percent to US$38.33, for a value of US$51.7 billion.
A bid at US$60 billion would be the biggest since a group led by Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc acquired ABN Amro Holding NV last year for about 72 billion euros (US$95 billion).
The largest health-care deal remains Pfizer’s US$87 billion bid for Warner-Lambert Co in 2000, which was also the fourth-biggest takeover in history based on announced value, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS