UPDATED: 10.23.09 @ 7 AM EDT -- The "Hall Pass" was granted, this morning in Brussels. Now we await US FTC/DoJ clearance, and then -- as I indicated below, the Intervet Call Option fireworks. [The original posting of this item was 10.22.09 @ 2:26 PM EDT.]
If -- at around 4 a.m. EDT, tomorrow morning -- the right hand margin of this ECC Journal link contains an "en", with a live-link attached to it, you'll know that the European Competition Commission has officially granted the deal (the Merck/Schering-Plough reverse merger portion, anyway) a "hall pass".This pass will be good until the Sanofi-Merial 100-day call option (on the Intervet businesses) is exercised -- then the "competition review fun" will begin in earnest:
. . . .18 September 2009
Prior publication in Official Journal
Provisional deadline: 23 October 2009. . . .
Of course -- even if the ECC is wholly-obliging tomorrow morning, our time -- that still leaves the US FTC/DoJ HSR process to contend with.
4 comments:
Condor;
The story link you posted for the "hall pass" notes at the bottom that most of the job losses will happen "out of the US". This is the first I have heard of this. As a SP employee, I've followed the news each day both internally and externally and have not seen any indication as to how the job losses would be allocated. Have you seen anything that would push a reporter to make that comment?
Thanks:
Great Catch!
I didn't see that, on first pass, in the Reuters feed.
I'll post on it now -- we'll see what others have heard.
Again thanks so much.
And, good luck!
Namaste
There will be serious overlap, as well as an over staffed sales-force in the U.S. IMO.
New Merck could easily get twice the attrition they want by offering older employees decent packages, but then there would be no one left!
Why would they let the overseas coleagues go? That's where 70% of sales and most of the growth is coming from at SP.
Murphy's law, if you want a package it won't be offered. If you want to stay, then a package will be forced upon you.
Great stuff -- I've made all of this a new post, above -- and added a few observations. Do stop back!
Namaste
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