Remember the hostile takeovers of the 80′s? They’re back.
“I am very confident that we will be successful in taking 100 percent of Genentech,” Franz Humer was quoted as saying in an interview with Switzerland’s Basler Zeitung.
Roche launched a surprise hostile bid for Genentech on Friday at a price below its initial rejected offer, reflecting tougher financing conditions and a drop in Genentech shares.
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Hard times mean hard-nosed M&A for those with cash
M&A business has slumped in the past year but companies with strong balance sheets are out bargain-hunting.
Business leaders meeting in Davos this week said they saw opportunities in the global downturn, though leverage is out and a hard-nosed focus on cost cutting is the order of the day.
“We’re going to see further waves of consolidation as weaker players are taken over by stronger players,” said Mark Foster, global head of management consulting at Accenture.
”The retail industry is going to go through a big consolidation phase, as will the consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and communications industries.”
Another glom by free market capitalism? And what is the point?…because they can. Under the illusion of the strong taking over and propping up the weaker companies, what the truth is remains hidden. Centralization leads to fewer voices and more money and power under one roof. With interlocking BOD’s and no regulation and no anti-trust enforcement, greed, as is human nature will reign supreme, power centralized and the voices of the many squelched…no exception!
Anti-trust laws have to be re-focused and enforced…again, money and power have caused We The People to have to reinvent the wheel here. Out of the Great Depression came reignited institutional knowledge gained throughout the millenia that recognizes the avarice and the need to restrain it and WE let it fade into history…again! WE codify laws in tough times and time after time as things prosper, WE allow that ‘wisdom’ to be usurped…why is that?
Doubt Nothing Question Everything for nothing is simple and little is true