Bristol-Myers Squibb buying Celgene in $74B deal

SUMMIT, N.J. – Bristol-Myers Squibb is spending $74 billion on fellow drugmaker Celgene in a deal aimed at stocking the combined company’s development pipeline with cancer, immunology and cardiovascular treatments.

Bristol would gain the cancer treatment Revlimid in the cash-and-stock deal announced Thursday, as well as inflammatory disease treatments and several products close to launching.

The combined company will have nine products with more than $1 billion in annual sales. Bristol’s product portfolio already includes Orencia, an injected drug for rheumatoid arthritis, and the cancer treatment Opdivo.

Bristol Chairman and CEO Giovanni Caforio said in a prepared statement that the combination will create a deep product portfolio that drives growth.

It was a hard sell, however, on Wall Street. Shares of Bristol ended Thursday down $6.90, or 13.3 per cent, at $45.12, on a day when the Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 2.5 per cent. Celgene shares, however, soared $13.79, or 20.7 per cent, to $80.43.

Under terms of the deal, shareholders of Celgene Corp., based in Summit, New Jersey, will receive one share of Bristol-Myers Squibb plus $50 in cash for each share they own. They’ll also receive one tradeable contingent value right for each Celgene share, allowing the holder to receive a $9 payment when future regulatory milestones are hit.

The cash-and-stock portion of the deal totals $102.43, based on Wednesday’s closing price of $52.43 for Bristol shares. That represents a premium of nearly 54 per cent to Celgene’s closing price of $66.64.

Shareholders of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., based in New York, would own about 69 per cent of the company, with Celgene shareholders owning about 31 per cent.

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