Over the weekend, it was leaked that Pfizer Inc. would be acquiring Wyeth for about $68 billion, using a combination of cash on hand, stock and borrowed cash.  The big announcement came this morning.  Wall Street is so excited that someone has money and is putting it to use that both the acquirer and the target's share price went up on Friday.  But, not this morning.  On Friday, Pfizer's price had gone up a bit to $17.45, and Wyeth's had gone up a lot (from $38.83) to $43.74.  This morning, Wyeth's is $44.18, but Pfizer's has plummeted 8% and is now at $16.04.  Are we a little debt-averse this days?  The target's share price is inching toward the acquisition price of $50.19, so we'll keep our eyes on that in the next few weeks.

There's a lot to love about this proposed merger for every academic:  a little bit of antitrust (they are competitors); a little bit of IP (seems like some lucrative patents are about to expire); a little bit of corporate/international tax (apparently Pfizer has a lot of offshore cash and would prefer not to expatriate it and face tax consequences, diminishing its purchase power); a little bit of M&A/corporate governance (look at that break-up fee!).  And who knows what else will come up?  A lot can happen between betrothal and the altar.

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