King to buy Alpharma for $1.6 billion

King Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Monday said Alpharma Inc. has accepted its revised offer to be acquired in an all-cash deal valued at $1.6 billion.

Bristol, Tenn.-based King (KG:
king pharmaceuticals inc com
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KG 9.08, +0.47, +5.5%) offered to pay $33 a share when it publicly unveiled its proposal in August, but it later upped the price to $37 a share after Alpharma rejected its original bid as too low.
King later made a tender offer to shareholders of Alpharma, prompting the board of the target company to adopt a plan to make a hostile takeovers more costly. As of last Friday, owners of 73% of the common stock issued by Alpharma accepted the tender offer.
King is a diverse pharmaceutical firm that focused on specialty products. The company generated $2.1 billion in sales in 2007 and has a market value of $2.1 billion, the
Bridgewater, N.J.-based Alpharma (ALO:
ALPHARMA Inc
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ALO 35.50, +2.00, +6.0%) makes drugs related to animal health and as well as humans. The company posted $722 million in revenue last year and has a market value of $1.4 billion, part of which reflects the rise in value since King announced its offer.

The smaller firm has several promising products in its pipeline, including Remoxy and Embeda, painkillers that have been designed to make it harder for patients to abuse or misuse them.
Embeda, for example, is used as a treatment for pain associated with osteoarthritis. Alpharma's application for approval was given priority-review status by regulators in early September. The Food and Drug Administration could make its final decision before the end of the year.
King said it's aiming to complete the acquisition by the end of 2008.

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