Threat of FTC Litigation Ends Omnicare Bid for PharMerica
February 22, 2012
Under threat of FTC litigation, US pharmacy benefit manager Omnicare ended its $457 million bid for rival PharMerica.
According to Kaye Scholer Antitrust Partner Claudia Higgins, “The hostile nature of the deal may have created a significant barrier for Omnicare to continue with the litigation. Were Omnicare to successfully take over PharMerica during the litigation, the company may have had to let some former PharMerica employees go – employees that could then have become witnesses for the FTC during the in-house trial.”
“Procedurally, the decision to abandon the bid was very predictable,” Higgins concluded. “The fact that it’s a hostile deal does make it more difficult.”