CV Therapeutics reconsiders $1B Astellas offer

CV Therapeutics said it has decided to reconsider Tokyo drugmaker Astellas Pharma's buyout offer. The original offer of $1 billion was presented back in November. At $16 per share, the proposition is about 69 percent of above the two-month average closing price of the Palo Alto-based CV Therapeutics. Nonetheless, CV's Board of Directors rejected the offer just over a week later, saying it wasn't best for shareholders, and have not been in talks with Astellas since. That is, until Astellas made the offer public on Tuesday.

After the announcement, CV's stock jumped from a closing of $11.35 on Monday to $15.42 in trading on Tuesday. CV's stock rose to 15.62 in premarket trading on Wednesday.

"Because Astellas, by its recent announcement, has sought to revive its previously rejected proposal, the CV Therapeutics board of directors will again review developments in the context of the company's strategic plans and the long-term interests of its stockholders, to pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for stockholders," CV said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

However, CV is no longer on track to make over $600 million by 2010, as it once predicted. From 2006 to 2007, it only made $119.6 million, in fact. Only 150,000 people have used its medication for chest pain since CV released it.

Both companies have products that focus on cardiology, and Astellas said it has the financial wherewithal to go through with the deal, if CV accepted.

- read CV's release
- read the story at US News & World Report
- see the Forbes version
- here is what MarketWatch said