The Lex column of The Financial Times just cleverly dubbed it "puppy-love" -- and yet, as the paper admits, it is anything but. It is, if fully-unchained, a bruisingly-huge (perhaps market-dominating) hard-muscled behemoth of a pit bull:
. . . .The benefits of fusing the two are clear. The combined entity will boast 30 per cent market share in animal health, half as much again as second-placed Pfizer. And the usual synergies in manufacturing, marketing and administration will also be eked out – perhaps as much as one-fifth of costs.
A complication, though, could come in the form of stick wielding anti-trust regulators. Pricing power will be a concern. So too product overlap. While Merck has more exposure to livestock and Sanofi leans towards pets, or “companion animals”, both companies have significant interests in cattle and poultry vaccines, some of which may have to be jettisoned. Merck’s chief executive Dick Clark may believe that the businesses "deserve to be together." Regulators are unlikely to entirely agree. . . .
Indeed. Much more to come.
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