AbbVie extends Pharmacyclics offer to give FTC more time
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
AbbVie has extended the deadline of its exchange offer to acquire the shares of Pharmacyclics to 1 May. It also said it had withdrawn its Hart-Scott-Rodino filing and would resubmit it on 21 April, from when a new 30 calendar day HSR waiting period would commence. This was to provide US Federal Trade Commission with more time to review the proposed deal. This type of "pull and refile" procedure, in which a company withdraws its application and resubmits it within two working days, enables companies to provide additional information without having to be subject to a formal FTC 'second request', which is a more time-consuming and expensive way of giving the FTC extra time. AbbVie said it and Pharmacyclics "continue to work cooperatively with the FTC staff in their review". It expects the deal to close in the second quarter of 2015. AbbVie announced the $21bn cash and shares transaction on 4 March. As of 4pm EST on 17 April, around 47.5m Pharmacyclics shares (around 62% of total outstanding stock) had been validly tendered to the offer and not withdrawn.