In­side the deal: As leaked de­tails goosed its stock, Ac­celeron's CEO pumped Mer­ck for more cash

As leaked de­tails of its po­ten­tial merg­er with Mer­ck were splashed across the in­ter­net, Ac­celeron be­hind the scenes used new­found in­ter­est from in­vestors and a last-minute Hail Mary from an un­named suit­or to ply the drug gi­ant for an even more pricey buy­out, ac­cord­ing to a play-by-play of the deal in an SEC fil­ing.

Af­ter weeks of ne­go­ti­a­tion, Mer­ck late last month agreed to ac­quire Ac­celeron and its lead rare car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease drug so­tater­cept for $11.5 bil­lion, con­firm­ing days of leaked de­tails on the com­pa­nies’ ne­go­ti­a­tions.

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