Schering in deal to buy drug unit
AMSTERDAM -- Schering-Plough Corp. agreed to buy Akzo Nobel NV's drug-making division Organon for $14.4 billion to gain the world's third-largest maker of birth-control pills and a stable of experimental medicines.
Akzo unexpectedly canceled an initial public offering for the drug unit yesterday to accept the bid, which is 37 percent higher than analysts' estimated value for the IPO.
Shares of Akzo, based in Arnhem, the Netherlands, soared to the highest level in five years. Schering shares fell less than a percent.
The acquisition will lessen Schering-Plough's dependence on sales of the cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia, which it comarkets with Merck & Co.
The company, based in Kenilworth, N.J., will get five drugs Akzo has in the final stages of human testing and expand its revenue by 60 percent.
Chief executive Fred Hassan has been slashing jobs, closing plants, and making acquisitions, more than doubling profit since 2003. 