Sanofi-Aventis denied reports that suggested that its chief executive offered a $69-$80 negotiation price range to his Genzyme counterpart at a meeting last month.
The denial came after Genzyme board rejected an $18.5 billion hostile acquisition bid by Sanofi, which was priced at $69 per share. Genzyme said in a 14D-9 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday that Sanofi Chief Executive Chris Viehbacher suggested the company head Henri Termeer that he was eager to pay a range of $69 a share to $80 a share, rates which were open to negotiations.
The statement was immediately contradicted by Sanofi Friday when company spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires that the company did not offer a negotiation price range. He added that Genzyme was not eager to engage the company on a valuation.
"At that meeting we made a variety of efforts to move the process forward including the merits of our $69 dollar per share offer and trying to understand if media reports about Genzyme's price position were accurate," Sanofi spokesman said.
Analysts are not taking the confusing statements of the two companies as the final nail in the coffin of the acquisition but a longer process that may eventually result in a deal. According to those who have some information about the negotiations, an acquisition offer of up to $80 per share would have started discussions at Genzyme but the current offer was considered way too lower.
Sanofi launched the deal on Monday and its CEO offered great hopes of finalizing the deal citing support of Genzyme directors.
