The New York Times, Michael de la Merced
GlaxoSmithKline of Britain said on Monday that it would buy the biopharmaceutical company Human Genome Sciences on friendly terms for about $3 billion, ending a long hostile takeover campaign.
The friendly deal between the two ends Human Genome's efforts to find an alternative buyer for the company. It also ends months of jockeying between the two drug companies, who are partners in developing the lupus drug Benlysta.
Biopharmaceutical companies like Human Genome have been in demand by acquirers in recent years. Bigger drug makers have been seeking to restock their product pipelines with new offerings as older treatments lose patent protection. Two weeks ago, Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed to a $7 billion deal to buy Amylin Pharmaceuticals, which has been developing a new drug to treat diabetes.
Under the terms of the deal, GlaxoSmithKline is paying $14.25 a share in cash, or nearly double where Human Genome Science's shares were trading before news of the Glaxo's initial offer was disclosed.
In April, GlaxoSmithKline first proposed to pay $13 a share to acquire Human Genome, 81 percent above its closing share price the day before the bid was announced. The British drug maker was seeking to take advantage of a steep drop in Human Genome's share price in the last 12 months, a decline driven in part by high marketing costs for Benlysta.
But Human Genome swiftly rejected the bid as insufficient and instead put itself up for sale, inviting GlaxoSmithKline to participate in the auction process. Human Genome also put up defenses like a shareholder rights plan aimed at thwarting a hostile takeover bid. . .View Full Article
