Faced with in­tense in­vestor back­lash, Unilever now says $68B is its fi­nal of­fer for GSK con­sumer health­care busi­ness

In an an­ti-cli­mat­ic end to a bud­ding takeover fight, Unilever has all but giv­en up on a buy­out of Glax­o­SmithK­line’s con­sumer health­care busi­ness.

Unilever, the con­sumer prod­uct gi­ant be­hind house­hold brands like Ben & Jer­ry’s, Lip­ton and Vase­line, said in a state­ment late Wednes­day that it will not in­crease its of­fer above £50 bil­lion ($68 bil­lion) — which GSK had re­vealed days ago as its third and lat­est of­fer.

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