Roche Makes Genentech Takeover Bid

(NEWSER) - Swiss drug giant Roche has succeeded in its quest to own biotech firm Genentech outright, and will purchase the 44% of shares it does not already own for $95 each, the San Francisco Chronicle reports today. The $46.8 billion deal comes after months of haggling, wherein Roche offered as little as $86.50 for shares Genentech valued at $112. Roche pledges to maintain Genentech’s San Francisco campus. More»

If relationship with Modelo hadn't soured on fishing trip, Belgians might have been staved off

(NEWSER) - Anyone mourning the takeover of Anheuser Busch by Belgium's InBev might want to know that the real turning point in that battle occurred more than a decade ago. On a fishing trip. In Mexico. The last real chance to outmaneuver InBev was lost when the US brewer failed to get a controlling stake in Mexico’s Grupo Modelo, writes David Kesmodel in the Wall Street Journal. And chances for that, say industry sources, vanished when former A-B CEO August Busch III decided to take a call instead of landing a humongous marlin. More»

But analysts say Avastin sales slowing

(NEWSER) - Biotech firm Genentech said sales of its blockbuster cancer drug Avastin fueled a first-quarter profit increase of 12%, reports the Wall Street Journal, but the $600 million in sales was below analysts’ projected $622 million, causing some to grumble the drug may have reached a sales plateau. Genentech stock edged up 0.3% in after-hours trading. More»

Rumors of Microsoft takeover still swirling

(NEWSER) - Yahoo's falling core value threatens the company's future and is ringing alarm bells for investors, the New York Times’ Saul Hansell warned in his "Bits" blog. The central business of Yahoo.com, excluding subsidiary holdings, is worth less than half of its current share price, and a paltry 7% of Google’s $200 billion market value, according to one analyst quoted by Hansell. More»

World biggest biotech cuts 2,600 jobs in $2B restructuring

(NEWSER) - Biotech giant Amgen is slashing spending by $1.9 billion by cutting up to 14 percent of its workforce— 2,600 jobs—and closing some production facilities. The restructuring was triggered by plummeting sales of the company's anemia drug Aranesp. The shake up demonstrates that biotech operations are not immune to the problems that plague traditional drug companies, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»