novartis is planning to invest 1B in R&D in China, and even if it turns out to be a different company, they're still buying a company in the same business, in the same region for $125 million cash.
Wouldn't that spike speculative interest in this company anyway?
>>> TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Novartis AG, /quotes/comstock/13*!nvs/quotes/nls/nvs (NVS 52.44, +0.31, +0.60%) /quotes/comstock/06p!novn (CH:NOVN 53.25, -0.30, -0.56%) the Basel health-care giant, said on Wednesday that it definitively agreed to acquire 85% of the closely held Chinese vaccines company Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical Co. for about $125 million cash. The Chinese company produces vaccines targeting a number of viral and bacterial diseases, Novartis said. In 2008, Zhejiang Tianyuan doubled its net sales from the 2006 level, to $25 million. The deal is subject to conditions including regulatory clearance in China. On Tuesday, Novartis had said that it planned to invest $1 billion over five years for research and development in China>>>