More Videos
SPECIAL REPORT
MOST SHARED
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
- Judge Erases Couple's $525,000 Mortgage Payment
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- The Executive Job Search
- Garlic Price Rises Surpass Gold, Stocks in China
- New-Home Sales Jump 6.2% To Highest Level in Over Year
- US Plans to Reduce Emissions By 17% Within Next Ten Years
- Salvation Army's Kettles Now Credit Card-Ready
- Activision Prepares to Double Dip on ‘Modern Warfare 2’
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- 4 Thanksgiving Week Buys For Your Portfolio: Market Pros
- There's a 'Great Chance' For a Double-Dip Recession: Strategist
- Revenge of the Gangsta Nerds
- Will TCU See The "Flutie Effect?"
- Retail Earnings and Sales to Improve in Q4: Analyst
- Consumers Catching the Holiday Spirit
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- Crescenzi: Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Hedge Funds Take Early Lead in Warren Buffett's 'Big Bet'
- AIG, Ex-CEO Greenberg Reach Pact to Settle Disputes
- Bank of America CEO Search May Extend Into 2010
- Steepest Black Friday Discounts, Revealed
- 'Cancer of Fraud' Permeates Health Care System: Critics
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- Judge Erases Couple's $525,000 Mortgage Payment
- For Many in US, It Will Be a Scaled-Down Holiday Season
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- Jobless Claims Below 500,000, Durable Orders Slip
PHARMA'S MARKET VIDEO
RSS FEED
Pharma's Market
Text Size 
 |
The Swiss drug company is now offering 93 bucks a share for the 44 percent of DNA it doesn't already own. That's up from $86.50, which was down from the original bid of $89. Interestingly, Roche made the move on a Friday evening in Switzerland, in the middle of the trading day here in the States.
Roche, in the role of Howie Mandel who is a proxy for "the banker", is essentially trying to get Genentech shareholders to throw in the towel and take the $93 and go home. But there's still one briefcase left to be opened. It contains the results of the big study of Genentech's Avastin on earlier stage colon cancer. Analysts say if the drug works that it could add several billion dollars a year in revenue and send DNA [DNA
Loading...
()
] shares to around $100 and maybe even out of Roche's reach.
Clearly, Roche is trying to get this deal done before the results come out and it's counting on nervous shareholders, who might also need the cash right now in today's stock market, to take the bait. I think a key statement in the Roche release is Chairman Franz Humer's quote, "Based on conversations with Genentech shareholders, we believe there is a strong sentiment to bring this process to a conclusion."
But Genentech has already put out its own press release urging shareholders to leave it alone. The company says the three members of its board who make up the special committee assigned to deal with Roche will review the latest offer "promptly" and then explain its position "in detail" in a regulatory filing.
Game on.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes