Valeant increases Obagi offer
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (TSX:VRX; NYSE:VRX) increased on Wednesday its offer to acquire Obagi Medical Products Inc. (NASDAQ:OMPI) to $24 per share in cash from $19.75 per share. The news came the day after Merz GmbH & Co. KGaA (Frankfurt, Germany) made public a competing offer to acquire the skin disorder company for $22 per share in cash. Obagi's board unanimously approved the amended merger with Valeant at the bumped-up price, which values Obagi at about $418.4 million based on 17.4 million Obagi shares outstanding as of March 6. The deal is still slated to close this half.
Valeant's new price is a 22% premium to Valeant's original $19.75 price and a 9% premium to Merz's price of $22 per share, which values Obagi at about $383.6 million. Obagi markets skin disorder products and reported 2012 net sales of $120 million. Merz could not be reached for comment (see BioCentury Extra, April 2). ...