Bio­gen's $7.3B deal for Rea­ta fol­lowed a bid­ding war with mys­te­ri­ous 'Par­ty A'

Bio­gen’s $7.3 bil­lion ac­qui­si­tion of Rea­ta Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals — its first ma­jor deal in more than four years — came af­ter a show­down with an­oth­er po­ten­tial buy­er that saw the ac­qui­si­tion price pushed up from $140 a share to $172.50, ac­cord­ing to a se­cu­ri­ties fil­ing.

The deal, an­nounced just over a month af­ter Bio­gen’s first ap­proach, ap­pears to be a sign of the in­creased flex­i­bil­i­ty that CEO Chris Viehbach­er has with the com­pa­ny’s new board. For years, Bio­gen has kept out of the M&A mar­ket, and its last ma­jor takeover was the dis­as­trous 2019 buy­out of Night­star Ther­a­peu­tics.

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