With mega merg­er sea­son in full swing, Take­da of­fi­cial­ly swal­lows Shire

Amidst a flur­ry of mul­ti-bil­lion dol­lar merg­ers in 2019, the biggest-ever over­seas ac­qui­si­tion by a Japan­ese drug­mak­er was con­sum­mat­ed on Tues­day, as Take­da closed its $62 bil­lion takeover of rare dis­ease spe­cial­ist Shire.

First dis­cussed in March 2018, the deal that ex­pands Take­da’s foot­print in the world’s biggest mar­ket for drugs — the Unit­ed States — and cre­ates an en­ti­ty with com­bined rev­enues of more than $30 bil­lion was con­clud­ed de­spite an in­ter­nal re­volt by old timers in the Take­da share­hold­er base that cast doubt on the val­ue of the trans­ac­tion con­sid­er­ing the size of the Dublin-based com­pa­ny’s debt.

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