---
title: "Pfizer → AstraZeneca"
url: "https://mahouse.world/ma-deals/pfizer-buy-astrazeneca-2014"
type: "M&A deal"
year: "2014"
---

# 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 Rejected on price four times; withdrawn under a UK Takeover Panel deadline the AstraZeneca board refused to bend.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.

- **Acquirer:** Pfizer (United States)
- **Target:** AstraZeneca (United Kingdom)
- **Value:** $118B
- **Announced:** April 2014
- **Outcome:** Terminated
- **Sector:** Pharma
- **Deal type:** acquisition

## 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 (Tax inversion to UK)
- **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- **Withdrawn:** 26 May 2014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 ("Put up or shut up" deadline)
- **Break fee:** None