Dive Brief:
- Ending an M&A saga that's been playing out since April, Perrigo shareholders rejected a $26 billion hostile takeover bid by Mylan on Friday. The stakeholders had until 8 AM on Friday to tender their offers, but Mylan was already far short by Thursday night.
- Mylan needed Perrigo shareholders to tender at least 50% of Perrigo's shares in order to go forward with the buyout, but received just 40%.
- The market responded by sending Mylan shares flying more than 11% in early Friday trading while Perrigo shares were down more than 7%. Perrigo CFO Judy Brown said that the company would take advantage of the drop in stock price in order initiate a buyback program of up to $500 million in shares by the end of 2015 (and up to $2 billion overall).
Dive Insight:
And so ends one of the most aggressive M&A dramas of 2015. Perrigo was staunchly against the deal from the get-go, and CEO Joseph Papa repeatedly said that the two companies had starkly different cultures and ambitions.
Over the course of seven months, there was no shortage of name-calling and a proxy battle conducted by proxy firms. But at the end of the day, enough Perrigo shareholders heeded calls by the company's board to hold on to their shares to scuttle Mylan's ambitions to create a generic drug powerhouse.
"Now that the Mylan tender offer is behind us, we look forward to continuing to create significant value for our shareholders," said Papa in a statement. "We are grateful to all of Perrigo’s employees around the world, whose relentless efforts are reflected in today’s outcome. Even with all the distraction over the past seven months, our unrivaled team has executed our strategy and continued our commitment to delivering quality affordable healthcare products to customers and patients across the globe."