Genzyme and Sanofi edge ever closer to the $20B "sweet spot"

The Boston Globe isn't waiting for a final $19 billion to $20 billion merger announcement from Sanofi-Aventis and Genzyme to trigger a look back on the legendary biotech. Columnist Scott Kirsner jumps out of the gate with a eulogy of Genzyme's halcyon days as a pioneering developer, when the biotech was seemingly tilting at R&D windmills as it attacked rare diseases.

"Genzyme was one of those classic Massachusetts success stories--a company obsessed with figuring out how to do the impossible," writes an elegiastic Kirsner.

Just about every major financial news service is headlining the prospective deal at $74 per share plus a contingent value right security that starts trading at $2 to $3 each with the potential to earn $5 to $6 if Lemtrada lives up to the biotech's expectations for MS. That may not please everyone, especially those who purchased Genzyme shares at the peak, but the hedge funds which have been muscling in for a piece of the action appear content with a deal that starts at around $77 in cash.

"Despite mutterings of $80, $76 to $77 was always the sweet spot," one told the Wall Street Journal. For now, however, due diligence appears to be the order of the day as the biotech community awaits the end of the long standoff that presaged an expected deal.

- here's the story from the Wall Street Journal
- get the piece from the Boston Globe