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AstraZeneca Rejects Viagra-Maker Pfizer's Final Deal

AstraZeneca Rejects Pfizer's Final Deal
The Huffington Post UK
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AstraZeneca today rejected a final £69 billion takeover offer from Pfizer, saying the American company had still significantly undervalued the British pharmaceutical business.

Viagra maker Pfizer wants to create a new pharmaceuticals giant that will be domiciled for tax purposes in the UK.

The US company said the offer worth £55 a share was 15% more than its previous proposal on May 2 and also represented its fourth and final approach.

Pfizer added that it will not make a hostile offer direct to AstraZeneca shareholders, instead urging them to press the company's board to begin substantive engagement over a deal.

Pfizer chief executive Ian Read said: "We have tried repeatedly to engage in a constructive process with AstraZeneca to explore a combination of our two companies.

"Following a conversation with AstraZeneca earlier today, we do not believe that the AstraZeneca board is currently prepared to recommend a deal at a reasonable price.

"We remain ready to engage in a meaningful dialogue but time for constructive engagement is running out.

"We have said from the beginning that we will remain disciplined in the price we are willing to pay and we will not depart from that guiding principle.

"We believe that our proposal represents compelling and full value for AstraZeneca and that other issues that have been raised by AstraZeneca do not represent material difficulties."

But Astra believes that Pfizer's board is making a opportunistic attempt to acquire "a transformed AstraZeneca, without reflecting the value of its exciting pipeline''.

See also: 5 Reasons Why Pfizer's AstraZeneca Takeover Plans Should Worry You

5 reasons people are worried about Pfizer
Hundreds of job cuts after taking over Warner Lambert(01 of05)
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Pfizer snapped up Warner-Lambert in 2000, makers of the anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor, in a deal worth around $111.8 billion, making it the world's second biggest phamaceutical firm. Soon after, it was announced that hundreds of workers would lose their jobs, equating to 10% of the combined workforce. (credit:(Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images))
And again at Pharmacia (02 of05)
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Pfizer acquired Pharmacia, securing drugs like the painkiller Celebrex, in a $60 billion deal back in 2002.After the merger, a site in Redwood City, California, was swiftly shut - with the loss of over 300 jobs. In 2008, 275 job cuts were announced at the Kalamazoo manufacturing facility.
And yet more losses when they bought Wyeth(03 of05)
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Pfizer paid $68bn for Wyeth, the US maker of Effexor, an antidepressant, and Prevnar, a child meningitis vaccine in 2009.The US drug giant then unveiled nearly 13,000 job cuts in the first year after the process and the closure of eight factories. By the end of 2013, 33,500 jobs had been cut. (credit:Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
And more job losses after buying King Pharmaceuticals(04 of05)
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After buying pain-drug maker King Pharmaceuticals for $3.6 billion in 2010, Pfizer confirmed eight months later that it’s cutting 130 manufacturing and 16 logistics positions at its plant in Bristol, Tennessee. Not the biggest number, but a major blow in a town of roughly 26,000 people.
Pfizer's record in the UK is hardly any better(05 of05)
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The drugs giant sold its research and development facility in Kent to a private consortium in 2012, resulting in 1,500 jobs being lost. (credit:Gareth Fuller/PA Archive)

Chief executive Pascal Soriot said the mega-merger would prove a distraction from its scientific priorities.

And Pfizer's pledges have also been criticised by the President of the Royal Society, who said they were "vague, come with caveats and have an inappropriate timescale''.

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