Pfizer → AstraZeneca
An unwelcome inversion bid that turned into a British political incident. Rejected on price four times; withdrawn under a UK Takeover Panel deadline the AstraZeneca board refused to bend.
AstraZeneca's board rejected a final £69.4bn offer, and UK political concern over research jobs ended the approach within four weeks.
- Value
- $118B
- Announced
- April 2014
- Outcome
- Terminated
- Sector
- Pharma
- Deal type
- acquisition
- Acquirer
- Pfizer (United States)
- Target
- AstraZeneca (United Kingdom)
Why it mattered
The same inversion logic that would drive the Allergan attempt eighteen months later — move Pfizer's tax domicile to the UK's lower corporate rate — with the added attraction of AstraZeneca's oncology pipeline, which Pfizer's own R&D had thinned. On paper, the largest foreign takeover of a British company ever attempted.
The story
Pfizer made its first approach privately in November 2013, was rejected, and went public in April 2014. Four offers followed in six weeks, topping out at £55/share (≈$118bn). AstraZeneca chairman Leif Johansson and CEO Pascal Soriot rejected every bid as strategically wrong and financially inadequate, and Soriot testified in Parliament on the "national interest" implications for UK life-sciences R&D. Under the UK Takeover Code, Pfizer had a hard 26 May 2014 "put up or shut up" deadline. It walked. Under the same code, it was locked out from re-bidding for six months, and by the time that window opened the political backlash had crystallised inside Whitehall.
What it left behind
Vindication for Soriot on the science: AstraZeneca's oncology franchise (Tagrisso, Lynparza, Imfinzi) became the foundation of a company that would grow to roughly triple its 2014 market capitalisation. For Pfizer, the loss narrowed the strategy pipeline down to Allergan.
At a glance
- Structure
- Hostile approach, cash + stock
- First approach (private)
- Nov 2013
- Public bid
- 28 Apr 2014
- Final offer
- £55/share (~$118B)
- Rejections
- 4 in 6 weeks
- Withdrawn
- 26 May 2014
- Regulatory frame
- UK Takeover Code
- Break fee
- None