Sanofi stands pat as it extends offer for Genzyme

By the time the final minute on Sanofi-Aventis' $69 tender offer for Genzyme shares ran out at midnight Friday, a meager 0.9 percent of the biotech's shareholders had tendered their shares. But that didn't seem to faze Sanofi one little bit. The pharma giant simply extended its offer to January 21 and raised the possibility that it could be extended again. While a steady flurry of news reports has focused on the behind-the-scenes efforts to get Sanofi and Genzyme to the bargaining table, very little of substance has occurred since Sanofi underwhelmed Genzyme with its $18.5 billion bid. Raymond James analyst Eric Le Berrigaud, though, says that with this first extension, Sanofi will be under greater pressure to up its bid high enough to make sure they can get talks started. Today, though, Sanofi appears to be in no real hurry at all. Story