Takeda and Millennium - Top 10 deals of 2008

Who: Takeda
With: Millennium‎
What: $8.8B buyout

Summary: With an eye on expanding in the U.S. market--and capitalizing on the weak dollar--Japan's Takeda offered $8.8 billion for Millennium Pharmaceuticals in April. Takeda, which is facing patent expirations for Actos and Prevacid, picked up Millennium's cancer drug Velcade in the deal. The company hopes to turn Velcade into a global blockbuster. Millennium had more than a half billion dollars in revenue last year and also has a number of inflammation and cancer therapies in the pipeline, which addresses Takeda's interest in oncology.