BUSINESS BRIEFS
Merck takes over rival Schering for $41.1 billion
Advertiser News Services
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TRENTON, N.J. — Merck & Co. is buying Schering-Plough Corp. for $41.1 billion in a deal that gives Merck key new businesses, access to a promising pipeline of new products and the chance to cut costs, including eliminating about 16,000 jobs.
Merck hopes the cash-and-stock deal, which would vault it to the world's No. 2 drugmaker, helps it better compete in a drug industry facing slumping sales, tough generic competition and intense pricing pressures.
The deal announced yesterday would unite the maker of asthma drug Singulair with the maker of allergy medicine Nasonex and form the world's second-largest prescription drugmaker, behind Pfizer.
The company will be "well-positioned for sustainable growth," Merck Chairman and CEO Richard Clark told The Associated Press.
"We'll double Merck medicines in (late-stage development) to 18," added Clark, 63, who will lead the combined company.
Merck and Schering are already partners in a pair of cholesterol fighters, Vytorin and Zetia.
FORD WORKERS OK PAY FREEZE
DETROIT — Unionized workers at Ford Motor Co. have approved contract changes that include freezing wages and cutting benefits in a move aimed at helping the automaker remain competitive.The United Auto Workers said yesterday a majority of workers voted for the modifications to the 2007 contract with Ford, eliminating cost-of-living increases and cash bonuses.
The agreement is expected to be a model for Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp.
MORE NEWSPAPER WORKERS LAID OFF
SAN FRANCISCO — McClatchy Co. is cutting another 1,600 jobs in a cost-cutting spree that has clipped nearly one-third of the newspaper publisher's workforce in less than a year.The latest payroll cut, announced yesterday, follows through on the company's previously disclosed plans to lower its expenses by as much as $110 million over the next year as its revenue evaporates amid a devastating recession.
DOW CHEMICAL FINALIZING BUYOUT
GEORGETOWN, Del. — Dow Chemical reached a tentative deal yesterday to complete its disputed $15 billion buyout of Rohm & Haas.The combined company will shed more jobs than originally planned and freeze salaries this year. Rohm & Haas shareholders will still get $78 per share but not all of it in cash, a concession that allows Dow to take on billions less in debt than if the deal were to close under the original terms.
