U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer (PFE) is considering to buy Britain’s struggling drug maker AstraZeneca for $101 billion, Sunday Times reported.
The paper cited a variety of sources saying that “informal conversations” about a possible tie-up had taken place but that AstraZeneca, Britain’s second-biggest pharmaceuticals group, had rejected the offer with no discussions currently underway.
“As a normal course of business, we continually explore opportunities to enhance shareholder value,” Joan Campion, a spokeswoman for New York-based Pfizer, said in an e-mail to Bloomberg. “We don’t comment on market speculation or rumors.”
A $100 billion merger would top Pfizer’s 2000 acquisition of Warner-Lambert Co. for $90 billion, the industry’s largest deal, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
AstraZeneca, which announces Q1’14 results on Thursday, has a market cap of around $80 billion, compared with Pfizer – valued at $193.40 billion.
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