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Genentech: Roche wants it all

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche AG this week bid $44 billion, or $89 a share, for the 44 percent of Genentech it doesn’t already own, said Aude Lagorce in Marketwatch.com. The proposal “highlights the pharmaceutical industry’s hunger for new drugs at a time when the pipelines of many firms are sparse.” Roche already owns almost 56 percent of Genentech, a specialist in cancer treatments, and markets many of its drugs. “But a deal would let the two share research-and-development information earlier on in the process of developing new drugs” while saving up to $850 million a year in overhead. Until now, Genentech has operated independently of Roche “to preserve its innovative spirit.”

By buying the entire company, Roche “would gain control of all profits for Genentech blockbuster cancer drugs Avastin and Herceptin,” said Javier Espinosa in Forbes.com. But Roche may have to pay dearly for those profits. Shortly after the bid was announced, traders pushed Genentech stock to $93, indicating that they expect a higher final price.

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Takeovers: Yahoo’s separate peace with Icahn

If you can’t beat him, put him on your board, said Jim Goldman in CNBC.com. Yahoo this week said it has agreed to appoint “corporate rabble-rouser” Carl Icahn and two allies to its board. Yahoo “really had no choice” but to reach out to Icahn, who wants the Internet firm to cut a deal with Microsoft. “It was clear from the start that Icahn wasn’t going away, and with 68 million shares, or 5 percent of the shares outstanding, he was only getting louder.”

Broadcasting: Hannity’s big score

Underscoring the appeal of right-wing talk radio, Citadel Broadcasting and Clear Channel this week unveiled an unusual, $100 million deal to syndicate Sean Hannity’s radio program, said Katy Bachman in Mediaweek.com. Citadel, which owns ABC Radio Networks, will syndicate Hannity through the end of 2008, after which Clear Channel’s Premiere Radio Networks will distribute the show to all stations not owned by Citadel. The deal will net Hannity, who also hosts shows on Fox News, about $20 million a year over five years. The king of right-wing radio, Rush Limbaugh, recently signed a $400 million, eight-year deal with Clear Channel.

Computers: Is Steve Jobs ill?

Questions are growing over Steve Jobs’ health, after the Apple CEO looked unusually gaunt at a public appearance last week, said Brian Garrity in the New York Post. A company spokesman said Jobs was merely fighting “a bug,” but some investors are asking if his pancreatic cancer, treated by surgery in 2004, may have returned. “Apple has a history of dragging its heels when it comes to admitting that Jobs is sick.” Apple stock would almost certainly plunge if Jobs were incapacitated.

Pharmaceuticals: Turnaround for MS drug

Biogen Idec’s Tysabri “is shaping up to be a blockbuster drug,” said Keith J. Winstein in The Wall Street Journal, three years after alarming side effects forced the drug’s recall. Biogen said this week that the multiple sclerosis treatment has hit $1 billion in annual sales, even though users have a one in 1,000 chance of contracting a potentially fatal brain infection. That risk led to the drug’s recall in 2005, but it returned to the market in 2006 “under restrictive rules and a monitoring program.”