As of ten minutes ago, The Wall Street Journal was reporting that both Schering-Plough's -- and Merck's -- Animal Health businesses are being offered to various potential strategic (and financial?) buyers:
. . . .In recent days, Merck has circulated information on two assets: its 50% stake in the Merial joint venture, which could be worth roughly $5 billion, and Schering-Plough's animal health business, called Intervet Schering-Plough Animal Health, which could fetch $6 billion to $8 billion, the people said.
Merck plans to sell one of these assets in part to avoid any concerns from anti-trust regulators that an acquisition of Schering-Plough would make it too dominant in the animal medication business, the people said. . . .The terms of the [Merck-owned] Merial joint venture say that neither Merck nor Sanofi can own animal-health assets outside of the venture, people familiar with the matter said. According to those terms, Merck wouldn't be able to remain in the joint venture and hold Intervet separately. . . .
Bust-up, much, anyone? Anyone? It really isn't a matter open to debate, any longer. It is not a theory -- it is a fact.
In my opinion, this -- the offering of both companies' AH assets, in parallel (presumably, with only one of the two sets of assets ultimately to be sold) -- would suggest that the U.S. antitrust authorities were not inclined to accept any half-hearted efforts to resolve anti-competitive issues -- ones that may well have passed muster, even just two years ago. This also likely explains the withdrawal, and refiling, of each company's Hart Scott submissions, between May 18 and 20, 2009. Interesting.
5 comments:
Fair enough, though to be honest those of us in the animal health side never really thought a half-hearted attempt was ever under serious consideration. It was always going to be Merial or SPAH, not a piecemeal approach.
I hear you, anonymous poster.
Marek Fuchs, at TheStreet.com, has put together a rather campy 3 minute web-video, about the emerging U.S. antitrust implications -- to this, and other deals, in (and outside of) pharma -- from yesterday's WSJ story.
I won't feature it, as a separate post -- as it really doesn't say much of substance -- except that there will be "implications". . . .
Not very helpful -- but cute.
Namaste
[I placed a broken link to the video, in the deleted comment -- two overhead.]
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