Astellas begins tender offer for CVT

Astellas (Tokyo:4503) began a tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of CV Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CVTX) for $16 per share, or about $1.1 billion. The offer expires at 12:01 a.m. on March 27. CVT advised its shareholders to take no action and said it will take a formal position within 10 business days. CVT's board rejected the unsolicited offer for a second time last week (See BioCentury Extra, Friday, Feb. 20, 2009). ...