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Replies to #74511 on Biotech Values
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DewDiligence

03/15/09 1:45 PM

#74523 RE: corpstrat #74511

Re: Leveraging the balance sheet to increase RoE

Dew, behave yourself! Share re-purchase doth not equal M&A.

Actually, it does. On the scale we’re talking about—tens of billions of dollars in a short time—companies such as PFE and MRK could not simply buy their shares on the open market. Such a transaction would have to be accomplished by a formal tender offer with an SEC-filed prospectus and a procedure identical in almost every respect to an acquisition of another company’s shares.