Reuters tells the real story behind the Actelion takeover talk

Reuters led market opinion and was months ahead of Bloomberg in reaching the conclusion that Actelion, Europe’s biggest biotech company and often touted as the industry`s next takeover target, was unlikely to be bought before key drug data is published at the end of this year at the earliest. A Reuters Dealtalk on Feb 16 made this case very strongly and argued that there are currently no buyers out there for Actelion, which has been hit by a string of product setbacks over the last year. Three months after the Reuters story Bloomberg wrote a very similar one on the diminishing chances of a takeover before the drug data. By this time the Actelion had lost more than 10 percent of its value as investors became increasingly sceptical that the company would be bought in the short term. Bloomberg had repeatedly pushed the line that Amgen was likely to emerge as a bidder and it reported in November that a bid was imminent. As yet, no buyer has come forward. The Bloomberg story also touched on ideas Reuters had covered in a separate story, in which Reuters told readers any buyer might want to use a contingent value right to bridge differences.