Johnson & Johnson will host a conference call/webcast tomorrow morning, before the market opens, to report on its 2009 year-end results. I'll live-blog the portions of the call that cover arbitration of the Remicade/Simponi non-US distribution rights reversion. You may follow along, right here, at www.investor.jnj.com:
. . . .Johnson & Johnson will host an analyst meeting at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern Time) on Tuesday, January 26, 2010, to discuss fourth-quarter and full-year 2009 financial results. The meeting will be hosted by William C. Weldon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Dominic J. Caruso, Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer; and Louise Mehrotra, Vice President, Investor Relations. . . .
[LATER -- DailyFinance, with "What to Expect":]. . . .Looking at the numbers, analysts call for earnings of 97 cents per share on revenues of $15.72 billion, a slight improvement over last year's fourth quarter results of earnings of 94 cents per share, excluding special items, on revenues of $15.18 billion. The company has recently reaffirmed its fiscal 2009 earnings guidance of $4.54 - $4.59 per share, excluding items. Analysts are projecting $4.55 per share. . . .
As I earlier reported on January 10, 2010 -- I think it fair to infer that New Merck is telling us that there is little remaining chance of a negotiated settlement -- prior to the ultimate arbitrators' ruling, here -- "with respect to the arbitration with Centocor, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, the arbitration panel has recently been selected. Since the selection, the parties have met with the panel and the hearing in this matter has been scheduled for late September 2010. . . ."
Depending on one's perspective, this could well be seen as a negative admission by Merck -- that it sees scant value in any negotiated settlement, and thus must roll the dice with the arbitrators. In any event, I'll see ya' early tomorrow morning, folks.
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