Alere (NYSE:ALR) said today that its shareholders voted to approve its nearly $6 billion merger with Abbott (NYSE:ABT), despite its onetime suitor’s seeming reluctance to consummate the deal.
Abbott agreed in February to spend $56 per share for Alere, or a total of $5.8 billion, but the deal soon turned rocky when the Waltham, Mass.-based diagnostics company failed to file its annual financial statements on time and disclosed U.S. government probes into its billing and foreign sales practices. By August Alere had filed a lawsuit accusing Abbott of dragging its feet on key antitrust submissions to sabotage the deal; an attempt at mediation failed last month.
During a conference call with analysts this week to discuss 3rd-quarter results, Abbott CEO Miles White said his company is pursuing the necessary approvals for the Alere deal, but stopped short of predicting that the deal would pass regulatory muster.
“We’ll work through regulatory approvals and see what happens,” White said on the call.
Today Alere said 98% of votes cast at its shareholders meeting, representing some 77% of its outstanding shares, voted in favor of the Abbott union.
“The overwhelming support we received from our shareholders today is recognition of the significant value that the combination of Alere and Abbott unlocks for our global customers, employees and shareholders,” president & CEO Namal Nawana said in prepared remarks.
Just 2 months after announcing the Alere buy, Abbott agreed to pay $25 billion for St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ); the combined price of the 2 deals amounts to half of Abbott’s market valuation.