King Pharmaceuticals acquires Alpharma Inc.
By admin on November 24, 2008
King Pharmaceuticals will purchase Alpharma Inc. for 1.6 billion dollars, or /share.
This is not the first time that King has offered to buy Alpharma. The company made an offer of 1.4 billion in August, but Alpharma turned them down immediately. So King Pharmaceuticals decided that a hostile takeover was in order. The company immediately began purchasing Alpharma shares, and recently announced that it had acquired 74 percent of the company. Guess it’s good to be the king.
Here’s more, from CNN:
- Alpharma’s shares were up 7.4% to .99 in recent premarket trading.
- King said it expects the deal will close by the end of the year and will add to its earnings in 2010. It expects savings of million to million during those two years from not having to hire more sales representatives for the launch of its drug Remoxy, an oxycodone capsule for moderate to severe chronic pain.
- King’s tender offer for Alpharma’s shares had been set to expire last Friday, at which time about 73% of Alpharma shares had been tendered but was extended to Dec. 19.
- Alpharma makes pain drugs Kadian and Flector, while King’s products include the Skelaxin muscle relaxant.
- King had warned it could launch a proxy battle if its offer were turned down, moving to replace Alpharma’s board with its own nominees. Alpharma had adopted a shareholder rights plan with a 15% trigger in an attempt to hold off what it believed to be an inadequate takeover bid from King.
Read the full story here.
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