Does an M&A flurry presage a blizzard of new deals?

A few life sciences companies in the Boston cluster have announced new M&A deals in the last month and the local newspaper responds by waving a checkered flag and declaring that the new mantra for biotechs is "buy or be bought."

"The scramble for merger partners is on," sums up Boston Globe scribe Robert Weisman, pointing to Biogen Idec's hot pursuit of an unwilling Facet Biotech and the recently announced Sepracor buyout. And Weisman offers up a few salient reasons for a sudden surge of dealmaking after 18 months of quiet panic. Big companies want a bigger pipeline of products and the financial markets are able once again to give them the means to buy. Smaller companies, meanwhile, are often short of money. And that should all help conspire to keep the deals coming. 

Anyone who doesn't want to play in the new M&A market should heed the advice of Putnam Associates' Kevin Gorman: "You need to get critical mass. The bigger the animal, the fewer the predators.''

- read the article from the Boston Globe

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