This is a Reuters Health newsfeed, but versions of it are running elsewhere, tonight as well. Note that the story misses -- by four hundred percent -- the actual amount of time since CEO Hassan departed from "New Merck", and closed the merger:
. . . .Fred Hassan, former head of Schering-Plough, said Merck is likely to prevail over Johnson & Johnson in its battle to retain overseas rights to the blockbuster arthritis drug Remicade.
"Personally, I feel good that Merck will be able to keep Remicade," Hassan said on Thursday at the Reuters Health Summit in New York, justfour weeksseven days [Blog Editor's correction] after completing the $41 billion sale of his company to Merck. . . .
Note also that -- in high irony -- if Reuters' version of the last line "sale of his company to Merck" is taken to be the actual substance of the transaction (as most pundits regularly pen, as opposed to a reverse-merger, in which Hassan's Old Schering-Plough is the surviving entity), then J&J will likely win the arbitration -- as a sale of "his" (Hassan's) company is plainly a "Change of Control" under Section 8.2(c) of the relevant agreement.
Ah, details, details. . . the devil's surely in 'em.
Now, will New Merck need to put out a Reg FD SEC filing tomorrow, given that Ex-CEO Hassan's upbeat statements go well-beyond (there is much more detail to his quote -- in the article) where either CEO was willing to go, pre-merger? Especially so, since Fred Hassan is only one-week out of his seat -- as CEO?
Doesn't that look like a selective disclosure of some arguably material "inside" information?
We'll see. Whatever happened to the idea that Ex-CEOs dont comment on pending material arbitrations?
No comments:
Post a Comment