Shares of OSI Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: OSIP) were up this morning as investors anticipate a sweeter offer from Astellas for the drugmaker. A source tells Reuters that bids for OSI are due later today, though it's not clear yet whether another company is ready to swoop in and snap up the drug developer, which boasts the blockbuster drug Tarceva.
Astellas' current bid stands at $52 a share (about $3.5 billion), well below the $59 OSI's stock has been fetching. The two companies previously came to an agreement in which OSI allowed the Japanese drugmaker a look at its books in return for a promise that Astellas wouldn't buy OSI shares, among other things. Astellas said it would improve its bid if what it sees in OSI's books warrants a higher offer. The terms of that deal expire May 15. "The expectation all along has been that this gets done between $57 and $60 a share and now the market is betting it's closer to $60," one source tells Reuters.
- here's the Reuters article