As dis­as­ter struck, Ab­b­Vie’s Rick Gon­za­lez swooped in on Al­ler­gan with an of­fer Brent Saun­ders couldn’t say no to

Ear­ly March was a no good, aw­ful, ter­ri­ble time for Al­ler­gan CEO Brent Saun­ders. His big lead drug had im­plod­ed in a Phase III dis­as­ter and ac­tivists were af­ter his hide — or at least his chair­man’s ti­tle — as the stock price con­tin­ued a steady droop that had evis­cer­at­ed share val­ue for in­vestors.

Brent Saun­ders

But it was a per­fect time for Ab­b­Vie CEO Rick Gon­za­lez to pick up the phone and ask Saun­ders if he’d like to con­sid­er a “strate­gic” deal.

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