Pfizer Is In The Early Stages Of An Acquisition Of Biotech Company Seagen, Twitter's Staff Has Shrunk Since Elon Musk Took Over
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After talks between Seagen and Merck & Co fail, Pfizer tries to acquire Seagen.
Musk is cutting jobs and other costs at the social media company, which has suffered financial losses since it acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal in late October.
Pfizer and Seagen
Pfizer is in talks to acquire Seagen.
Talks are in the early stages and there is no guarantee there will be an agreement, people said. A number of hurdles would need to be overcome, including the ability to carry out a rigorous antitrust assessment of each proposal. If a deal were to be struck, it would be a big one: Seagen has a market value of around $30 billion and is expected to earn a premium on top of that.
Benefits for Pfizer
The deal would help Pfizer, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies with $100 billion in sales last year, add a class of agents to its cancer drug portfolio that has shown promise in so-called immunotherapies against some of the most common cancers.
It could also help Pfizer offset the $17 billion in sales the company predicts it could lose due to patent lapses by 2030. Pfizer has set a goal of adding $25 billion in revenue by the end of the decade from business development activities, including acquisitions. Seagen had nearly $2 billion in sales last year.
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Pfizer's situation
New York Pfizer is full of cash. The drugmaker makes about $22.7 billion from sales of its Covid-19 vaccines, drugs, and other products.
Last year, Pfizer acquired sickle drug maker Global Blood Therapeutics Inc. for over $5 billion, and the rest Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holdings Co. for over $10 billion.
Seagen and Merck & Co
Seagen was in advanced talks last year for a takeover by Merck & Co., in a deal that would be worth $40 billion or more, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time, but the two sides failed to reach an agreement.
Pfizer share price
After reaching 54.48 in mid-December last year, Pfizer's share price dropped significantly. Stock prices recently closed at 41.75.
Seagen share price
Seagen shares rose to 162.53 after Feb. 10, then fell. After another slight increase, stock prices closed at 161.37.
Twitter’s layoff
Twitter Inc. carried out another round of job cuts over the weekend, the latest among thousands of staff cuts under new owner Elon Musk.
The cuts come as billionaire Mr. Musk makes sweeping changes to the platform, including lowering costs, releasing new features and changing content moderation policies.
Musk said in November that the layoffs were necessary because Twitter was losing more than $4 million a day. Around this time, many major advertisers stopped spending on the platform.
Major changes
Elon Musk adds and enhances Twitter Inc platform features. at a rapid pace since the acquisition .
Significant changes so far include Twitter Blue's new subscription service and a new version of the algorithm-driven feed, renamed TikTok "For You," which recommends content to users beyond the accounts they follow. Other changes include allowing US subscribers to write tweets of up to 4,000 characters; golden checkmarks for corporate accounts and gray checkmarks for government accounts, and closing popular third-party apps such as Tweetbot and Twitterrific, which some users have used to get other features not offered by the typical Twitter platform.
Twitter has added a view count to tweets, which Musk said helps users know their tweets are being seen.
Source: wsj.com, finance.yahoo.com
