BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) -- King Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Monday extended its tender offer for shares of Alpharma Inc. to Nov. 21 in an effort to complete its planned $1.6 billion buyout of the rival pain drug developer.
The tender offer had been expected to expire Friday, leaving King with just 18.8 million shares of Alpharma stock, or about 45 percent of all outstanding shares.
King took its $37-per-share offer directly to shareholders on Sept. 12 following Alpharma's rejection of two King buyout offers, the first of which totaled $33 per share.
The latest offer represents a 54 percent premium to Bridgewater, N.J.-based Alpharma's closing price on Aug. 21, the last trading day before the bid was made public. Alpharma has adopted a shareholder rights plan to head off the hostile takeover bid, with the idea of making it prohibitively expensive for King or any other investor to buy more than 15 percent of the company's shares.
King shares closed at $7.81 Friday while Alpharma shares closed at $30.62.