Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) is nearing a deal to buy Salix Pharmaceuticals (SLXP) for some $10 billion, according to "The Wall Street Journal".
In recent years, Canadian drug company Valeant has been mentioned as a possible buyer of many companies, and at the end of 2014 its name was linked, not for the first time, with Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA). Valeant has a strategy of acquisitions, and has made several of them.
A few years ago, Valeant went head to head with another serial acquisition maker at the time, Teva, when it attempted a hostile takeover of US biopharmaceutical company Cephalon, but Teva made a better offer and bought the company.
Valeant has a market cap of $54 billion, after its share rose 18% in the past year. In the past five years, its share price has risen about 1050%.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 22, 2015
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