Japan's Takeda to acquire US cancer drugmaker for over USD 5bn

Japan's top pharmaceutical company Takeda will acquire a US cancer drugmaker in a deal worth more than five billion dollars, the two companies said.
Takeda will buy all of the outstanding shares in Massachusetts-based Ariad Pharmaceuticals for USD 24.00 per share, in a cash deal worth USD 5.2 billion, according to a statement released yesterday.
The share purchase is a premium of about 75 per cent over Ariad's closing price on Friday.
The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, and is expected to close by the end of February 2017, the firms said.
Ariad specialises in developing therapies for patients with rare forms of chronic and acute leukemia, lung cancer and other rare cancers.

Takeda, based in the western Japanese city of Osaka and led by Frenchman Christophe Weber, has been active in foreign acquisitions in recent years, including a 2011 acquisition of major Swiss rival Nycomed for 9.6 billion euros (then USD 13.6 billion).