For Elan Corp Plc's stockholders, a proposed share buyback may not be as friendly as it appears. The Irish drugmaker, in the middle of an increasingly bitter and complicated fight against hostile suitor Royalty Pharma, has announced a $200 million share buyback, a program that has the potential to kill a takeover by Royalty Pharma.Royalty Pharma, a U.S. investment firm, raised its bid on Friday for the third time to as much as $15.50 per share, or around $8 billion. It has conditioned its takeover offer on a rejection by Elan shareholders of all proposals put forward by the drugmaker for a June 17 shareholder vote.Shareholders are to vote on two of the acquisitions that Elan announced after Royalty Pharma's initial approach in February, including a $1 billion deal with U.S. biotech company Theravance Inc that has been criticized by some analysts for being too expensive.Elan shareholders, however, are also to vote on two other, seemingly uncontentious, proposals - a drug spin-off aimed at cutting operating costs and the share buyback, which is almost always considered beneficial to shareholders under normal circumstances.
Theravance, Inc. (Theravance) is a biopharmaceutical company with a pipeline of internally discovered product candidates and strategic collaborations with pharmaceutical companies. Shares of THRX traded higher by 1.97% or $0.7/share to $36.21. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $17.06 and as high as $33.31. On average, 1139800 shares of THRX exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1259397.
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