Analysing Companies: Business Models, Narrative and Numbers

Choose ONE recent merger, acquisition, divestment or other deal within the pharmaceutical sector.

To what extent does the concept of business model help to explain the motives for and the expected and/or actual outcomes of this deal?

Your answer should refer to and utilise relevant academic literature to explain how you define and justify your use of ‘business model’. In addition

to academic and other sources, your argument should be based on financial and other information including that related to the performance of the

companies concerned, the sector and other relevant factors.

Assessed coursework

‘Several multi-billion dollar deals and offers announced over the past few weeks have made 2014 the busiest year for healthcare acquisitions,

according to Thomson Reuters data.’ From Reuters 6th May 2014 http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/06/uk-healthcare-m-a-factbox-

idUKKBN0DM1D020140506

‘More than $200 billion is at play in the current round of M&A activity in the pharmaceutical industry – a frenzy that includes 14 deals announced so

far this year. This compares with 10 deals last year, according to a Wall Street Journal report based on data from S&P Capital IQ, a unit of McGraw

Hill Financial. Clearly, the global pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a major consolidation phase.’ From Knowledge@Wharton 28th May 2014

‘Trying to Recapture the Magic’: The Strategy Behind the Pharma M&A Rush

A spate of recent corporate stories suggests that M&A is (back) in fashion in the global pharmaceuticals industry. Some commentators expect 2014 to

be the busiest year for M&A in the sector since 2001. While large deals between so-called ‘big pharma’ account for some of this trend, there are a

host of smaller deals too, involving generics, biotech and healthcare companies. For example AstraZeneca rebuffed Pfizer’s attempts at takeover

earlier in 2014; AbbVie is currently attempting to takeover Shire; Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline have traded assets; and Daiichi Sankyo has been

trying to sell its majority stake in Ranbaxy to Sun Pharma. Any quick search will find many more examples across the industry. Your task is to choose

one recent or current merger, acquisition, divestment or other major restructuring event, which may have been successful, unsuccessful or currently

unresolved, and to explore the reasons for that bid in relation to the business model of the company or companies involved.