Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG offered to acquire all outstanding shares in its US partner Genentech for $43.7 billion.
Roche, which already owns 55.9 per cent of Genentech, said today it would offer $89 per share to buy up the remaining stake, a 9 per cent premium to the biotech company's closing share price on Friday.
Roche expects the combination to generate annual pre-tax cost synergies of about $750-$850 million and to be accretive to earnings per share in the first year after closing.
The deal will have no impact on Roche's 2008 sales and earnings per share forecast or dividend policy.
