Dive Brief:
- Valeant’s $53 billion offer for Allergan has not changed, according to Valeant.
- Valeant needs to get 25% of Allergan shareholders to agree to vote on the buyout.
- Michael Pearson, CEO of Valeant, predicts that once the meeting is convened for the vote, the takeover could take place in 10 to 120 days.
Dive Insight:
Allergan’s stance has not changed throughout this process, despite the fact that Pearson has stated that support for a Valeant takeover is building among Allergan shareholders. Allergan continues to assert that Valeant’s business model is unsustainable. According to Allergan, Valeant’s growth is not organic and is overly dependent on acquisitions. Allergan also claims that Valeant is overleveraged and at risk because it has a lot of near-term debt.
In addition to discussing what could go wrong if the buy-out goes through, Allergan has another strategy: the poison pill approach. As of April 22, if one or more shareholders owns 10% or more of the shares, a shareholder rights plan becomes effective. Under this plan, existing shareholders can buy shares at a discount, thereby diluting the value of shares and making a takeover more expensive.