ALLEGAN (WKZO) — Perrigo has now become the target of a hostile takeover as its gotten sucked into a multi-billion dollar takeover struggle between two larger companies.
Since the Perrigo Board rejected a $31-billion dollar buy-out offer by Mylan NV earlier this week, Mylan, which is based in England, has now taken its offer directly to Perrigo stockholders.
Reuters reports that by taking over Perrigo, Mylan hopes to derail an effort by Teva to swallow their firm. Teva is the world’s largest maker of generic drugs.
Mylan is offering Perrigo stockholders 2.2 shares of its own stock and $60 cash for each share of Perrigo in what could be the biggest and most public hostile takeover attempt so far this year. Perrigo is strongly advising its shareholders not to take action.
Perrigo stock is currently selling at $195 per share, and the Mylan offer equals about $222, but Perrigo officials say if you consider that Mylan stock was selling for considerably less before the Teva buy-out went public, the “real value” of the offer is about $181.
But Perrigo’s own stock price has been inflated by this high stakes game of cat and mouse, and so “value” is a relative thing.
It’s a case of big fish eating smaller fish and right now Perrigo is the smallest fish in the tank. It may have to do some fancy maneuvering to survive.
It’s much more than just an interesting exercise in high finance for all the Perrigo employees who work in Allegan and around the world. Their livelihoods could be on the line.
Just ask the former employees of Upjohn in Kalamazoo how they feel about mergers, buyouts and takeovers.
