Un­fazed by slow roll­out, Nestlé buys out Aim­mune and its peanut al­ler­gy med for $2.6B

Af­ter steadi­ly tight­en­ing its grip on Aim­mune Ther­a­peu­tics over the past four years, Nestlé is swoop­ing in to take full con­trol.

The Swiss food and drink con­glom­er­ate is anti­ng up $2.6 bil­lion to ac­quire Aim­mune at $34.5 per share, 174% more than its clos­ing price on Fri­day but still a tad be­low its peak of $39.55 back in 2017.

Add the $473 mil­lion worth of stocks Nestlé has bought so far — giv­ing it a 25.6% stake pri­or to the buy­out — and Aim­mune is worth well over $3 bil­lion in its new own­er’s eyes. The buy­out aligns close­ly with the bolt-on trend that’s dom­i­nat­ed the M&A scene in 2020, with com­pa­nies fo­cus­ing on prod­ucts rather than grand am­bi­tions of megamerg­ers.

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