MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Generic drug manufacturer Mylan is in the middle of a hostile takeover triangle.
Israeli company Teva continued to make a case Wednesday for its proposed $40.1 billion purchase of West Virginia’s 5th largest private employer. Meanwhile, Mylan recently proposed a similar, although less expensive, buyout of Ireland’s drug manufacturer Perrigo.
In an interview on MetroNews Talkline Wednesday, Jen Wieczner, a Fortune magazine writer, said Perrigo’s rejection of Mylan’s proposal is just the first bit of bad news for the company with roots dating back to the 1960s in the Mountain State.
“Mylan has the opportunity probably to raise its offer for Perrigo.Perrigo is probably also looking for other companies to acquire for potentially a higher price because it said that Mylan’s $29 billion offer undervalued the company,” predicted Wieczner.
The second piece of bad news for Mylan, according to Wieczner, is that Teva appears to be aggressive in its purchasing attempt.
“Their idea to buy Mylan is a better idea than Mylan buying Perrigo and also just having Mylan just being a standalone company saying that they can get lots of benefits from it such as tax savings. And, the shareholder of both companies should benefit there,” Wieczner said when summing up Teva’s Wednesday statements.
Wieczner said it will ultimately be up to shareholder votes on the futures of any of the three companies wrapped up in the takeover talks. The rhetoric of a takeover, generally, will likely spark concern of job loss.
“You know, it’s always possible they would shut down factories. But, if it is a productive factory and one that they’ve had for a long, long time, Teva isn’t just going to buy Mylan simply for parts here. It doesn’t seem to be that kind of takeover,” said Wieczner.
Wieczner said a complete shutdown would be unlikely because Teva doesn’t have a similar manufacturing facility.
Mylan, with its major manufacturing plant in Morgantown and 25,000 employees worldwide, recently reached a deal with Abbott Laboratories, for business ventures based in the Netherlands.