TeleRx, An Immaterial Merck Indirect Subsidiary Closed An Acquisition In Customer Care/Call Center Ops, On Monday: C3i In El Paso

As ever, a rather slow news week -- all these dog days of summer, before Independence Day here, in the States -- but this seemed worth mentioning. We hadn't noticed before that Merck operated this subsidiary business line -- as a distinct set of P&Ls and balance sheets (even though rolled up in the overall SEC filings and not even worth a footnote). Perhaps understandably, Merck operates it under the radar -- with almost no mention of the vast Mother Merck -- and clearly, none of the corporate identity campaign in evidence. Afterall, fellow multi-national (i.e., direct competitor) pharma giants employing it -- almost certainly won't really want Merck getting access to THEIR "drilled-down data" -- on end user patient customer contacts, etc. So we note it -- even if smallish. Terms were withheld.

In a separate update, we note that one analyst upped its 12 month NYSE price target on MRK, to $61. Other than that -- all nice and quiet. Here's the presser for the C3i acquisition closing:

. . . .TeleRx, a leader in U.S. customer care services, today announced that it has completed its acquisition of C3i, a leading provider of technology support services for the life sciences industry. This acquisition will provide TeleRx with the global infrastructure to expand its business services outside the United States while maintaining its current domestic operations. The acquisition was completed on June 30, 2014.

C3i serves more than half of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, delivering 24/7 global, multi-lingual service desk support, end-user training and hardware provisioning services. As a result of the acquisition, Telerx will now deliver services through eight operations centers in the United States, one in Europe and two in Asia. . . .

Be safe -- and keep it all in a Zen-like perspective -- throughout this coming long weekend. I know I will (Symphony tonight. . .). Whoosh! Out.