Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2014; the after-hours share moves of Valeant and Allergan and Pershing Square’s Allergan stake are figures from that day. Allergan later rejected the bid and in November 2014 agreed to be acquired by Actavis instead.
Bill Ackman, manager of Pershing Square, is in the news again. And this time it has nothing to do with Herbalife. Ackman has announced that he has teamed up with Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX) to take control of Allergan, Inc. (NYSE: AGN), a drugmaker whose products include Botox, for both therapeutic and cosmetic use.
Both companies have soared on the stock market, in the regular session as well as after hours, where Valeant Pharmaceuticals is up 10% while Allergan is up no less than 20%, after it emerged that Pershing Square holds more than 28 million shares in the company.
Ackman is clearly betting on the part of the pharmaceutical industry that focuses on anti-ageing products for working women, a sector where investment in R&D keeps growing by leaps and bounds.
Featured image: Coolcaesar at the English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
