Novartis AG surprised investors and offered to buy the rest of Alcon Inc from Nestle SA and minority share holders for about $39.3 billion. Alcon Inc is the world’s largest eye-care company.
Nestle will sell a 52 percent stake to the Basel, Switzerland-based drugmaker for an average of $180 a share, or a total of $28.1 billion, Novartis said today. Novartis also offered to pay 2.8 of its own shares for each remaining Alcon share held by the public, equivalent to about $11.2 billion.
via BW
