Dive Brief:
- Irish drug company Shire has sweetened a previously all-stock offer for Baxalta with an unknown amount of cash, according to sources speaking to Reuters. Any deal would have a $30 billion value at minimum, the sources added.
- Shire has bid on Baxalta three times within the last six months and been rejected each time. An all-stock offer in August was valued at $30.6 billion but Baxalta quickly rejected it. Complicating matters, Shire's stock has slumped since the summer.
- If this deal closed before January 1st, it would further boost an already record year for industry M&A volume. More than $600 billion has been spent on deals so far in 2015.
- The Financial Times reports that Baxalta is still fielding offers from other potential suitors, but may ultimately be nearing a deal with Shire.
Dive Insight:
Shire has focused much of its M&A attention this year on acquiring the Deerfield, IL-based Baxalta. However, Baxalta never found the deals enticing enough to bite
With the addition of cash to the deal, the two parties now appear to be reconsidering a merger. If the merger does move forward, the resulting combined company could become a rare-diseases powerhouse, combining Shire's rare disease portfolio with Baxalta's hemophilia and immune deficiency drugs.
Tax implications may complicate the deal. U.S. tax laws make any deal including cash challenging, because Baxalta's spin-off from Baxter International has tax-free status. However, Shire's CEO Flemming Ornskov appears determined to seal this deal.
Shire's stock has traded up this morning on the news, up over 3% at writing.