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Biotech / Medical : Ligand (LGND) Breakout! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cheryl Galt who wrote (13580)	1/22/1998 7:57:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

Cheryl, One of the analysts on CNBC (I believe it was Arvind Desai) said the value of the stock price put the liklihood at 50/50, but he thought other factors made it much more likely. The annuoncement coupled with street reaction were two of the factors. I suspect that the widespread discussion will get merger mania moving. Others will see the street's reaction, weigh the pros and cons, and start their own negotiations. I expect this merger mania to move the stock price of the big pharmas as well as Biotechs.

To: Cheryl Galt who wrote (13580)	1/22/1998 8:25:00 AM
From: tonyt	Respond to of 32384

Drug Makers See Decrease in Share Prices as Merger Euphoria Fades - NY Times 1/21/98 By DAVID J. MORROW Shares of American Home Products Corp. and SmithKline Beecham PLC retreated Wednesday as the euphoria over a possible merger of the companies began to cool. After rising 17 percent on Tuesday, the stock of American Home Products dropped 3.9 percent Wednesday to close at $90.5625. SmithKline's American depository receipts fell 4 percent, to $57.125, enough to create some downward momentum for other drug stocks. The shares of Eli Lilly, Merck, Schering-Plough and Warner-Lambert all dropped Wednesday after posting gains on Tuesday. When American Home and SmithKline on Tuesday confirmed market speculation that they were considering the largest corporate merger ever, shares of both companies shot up. Speculation also began that other pharmaceutical companies would pair up, creating a merger period similar to the one a few years ago when such industry giants as Novartis AG, Glaxo Wellcome and Pharmacia & Upjohn were created. Yet it became clear to analysts and industry watchers Wednesday that discussions between American Home and SmithKline had chilled, as talk of new sensitive points of a possible deal drifted into the market. Initially, both companies appeared to be concerned about the price of a deal, which was to have been structured as a stock swap. But what is apparent now, analysts said, is that one of the prime troubling points is American Home Products' legal liabilities from its two diet drugs -- Redux and Pondimin, which can be used as part of the diet cocktail fen-phen, which was taken off the market in September at the request of the Food and Drug Administration because of health concerns. Leery of a legal liability from fen-phen that is estimated by analysts to be anywhere from $2 billion to $9 billion, SmithKline's shareholders want some financial indemnification, expected by analysts to be enough American Home Products shares to give SmithKline a controlling interest in the combined company. Adding to the trouble, American Home Products has only $1 billion in product liability insurance, according to analysts' estimates, and also faces more lawsuits, over side effects from its Norplant contraceptive device. In any case, it is becoming clear that a merger, should an agreement be reached, will be negotiated slowly. Some analysts said that the process could take the rest of this year and warned that British regulators might be an underestimated obstacle to a combination. SmithKline Beecham, which is based in London, is one of two giant British pharmaceutical companies, along with Glaxo Wellcome, and regulators in Britain might not be willing to lose one of the two to the United States -- which might happen if American Home Products and SmithKline were to merge. "I would expect the American Home Products team to demand that the merged company be located in the Eastern part of the United States," said Neil Sweig, a pharmaceutical analyst with Southeast Research Partners. "But all these things have to be ironed out. The two companies may be cold for each other in February and then decide they're hot for each other again in March." A slow process could mean more money for the investment banks. Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Discover & Co. is the financial adviser for SmithKline, and Bear, Stearns represents American Home Products. Both investment banks declined to comment Wednesday. A merger of this size could generate fees of $35 million for each investment bank, though the fee may be as low as $5 million if the deal falls apart within the next several weeks. Potentially, both banks could rack up millions more in fees, even if American Home and SmithKline are unable to complete the deal, if the companies enter into other merger talks.

To: Cheryl Galt who wrote (13580)	1/22/1998 8:36:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

Cheryl, Maybe you should just ask Ligand if the AHP/SBE deal is going to happen. Bear Stearns (AHP advisor) loves Ligand (they are the #1 Market Maker for them, David Malowa got LGND's price moving when he initiated coverage in 1995 (LGND was at $6 then), and Bear Stearns is the first group to predict a profit for LGND this year. See links to coverage coverage at: home.att.net Moreover, Bernie says that Morgan Stanley (SBH advisor), has been hanging around LGND at all of the recent conferences (Bear Stearns, UBS, Robertson Stephens, Hambrecht $ Quist) www3.techstocks.com www3.techstocks.com and initiation of coverage of LGND by MS certainly wouldn't surprise me.

To: Cheryl Galt who wrote (13580)	1/22/1998 8:38:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

Speaking of big boy mergers (CNBC is now talking about MSFT and BT), here's a list of the top 100 companies (from today's FT): Global 500 1997 Rank Rank Market 1997 1996 Company Country Capital $m Sector 1 1 General Electric US 222748.3 541 2 2 Royal Dutch/Shell Nuk 191002.3 212 3 11 Microsoft Corp US 159659.6 482 4 5 Exxon Corp US 157970.4 212 5 3 Coca-Cola US 151287.6 424 6 10 Intel Corp US 150837.8 551 7 4 Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Jap 146138.7 223 8 8 Merck US 120757.0 433 9 7 Toyota Motor Corporation Jap 116585.4 401 10 Novartis Swi 104467.6 433 11 16 Intl Business Machines Corp US 104119.6 531 12 12 Philip Morris US 100666.4 425 13 15 Procter & Gamble US 93291.9 453 14 26 HSBC Holdings UK 91339.4 112 15 6 Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Jap 88818.9 112 16 19 British Petroleum UK 85905.0 212 17 13 Roche Holding Swi 85852.8 433 18 17 Wal-Mart Stores US 82533.0 492 19 29 Bristol Myers Squibb US 82482.2 431 20 24 Glaxo Wellcome UK 79715.9 433 21 14 Johnson & Johnson US 76898.1 431 22 25 Pfizer Inc US 75468.9 433 23 30 American International Group US 72359.4 151 24 27 Hewlett-Packard Co US 72267.8 531 25 66 Lloyds TSB Group UK 72094.9 112 26 9 AT&T Corp US 71918.8 223 27 28 Du Pont (E I) De Nemours US 69654.9 622 28 54 Lilly (Eli) US 67305.5 433 29 82 Bell Atlantic Corp US 62470.5 223 30 34 Pepsico US 61532.5 424 31 37 Citicorp US 61355.4 112 32 32 Mobil Corp US 58248.1 212 33 36 Unilever plc/NV Nuk 57484.2 451 34 171 Compaq Computer Corp US 56585.8 531 35 70 SBC Communications US 56150.1 223 36 41 Allianz Holding Ger 56013.3 151 37 42 Berkshire Hathaway US 55193.6 171 38 63 Boeing US 54415.8 523 39 39 Chevron Corp US 54379.9 212 40 35 Disney (Walt) Company US 54341.3 461 41 33 Nestle Swi 54315.6 451 42 47 Ford Motor Co US 54150.0 401 43 59 Smithkline Beecham UK 53304.1 433 44 Deutsche Telekom Ger 52515.4 223 45 71 Lucent Technologies US 52151.0 223 46 68 Bankamerica Corp US 50839.5 112 47 57 Chase Manhattan Corp US 49949.4 112 48 38 ENI Ita 49876.9 212 49 46 Federal Natl Mortgage Association US 49322.6 122 50 43 Abbott Laboratories US 49257.4 431 51 52 Cisco Systems Inc US 49008.4 533 52 64 Gillette US 48341.4 432 53 50 General Motors Corp US 48293.8 401 54 18 Sumitomo Bank Jap 47300.5 112 55 40 American Home Products Corp US 47270.8 433 56 56 Amoco Corp US 46928.5 214 57 97 Ericsson LM Swe 46174.0 533 58 48 Bellsouth Corp US 45880.0 223 59 85 Nationsbank Corp US 44018.1 112 60 104 Travelers Group Inc US 43692.9 121 61 45 GTE Corp US 43395.1 223 62 65 Motorola Inc US 42789.2 551 63 74 Daimler-Benz Ger 42709.9 401 64 53 BT UK 42017.5 223 65 110 Barclays UK 40636.1 112 66 107 Telebras Brazil 39070.8 223 67 111 American Express US 38391.2 121 68 95 Hutchison Whampoa Hong Kong 38141.0 223 69 51 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Jap 38099.2 551 70 77 Home Depot US 38049.8 492 71 72 Minnesota Mining & Mfg US 37776.0 406 72 108 Schering-Plough US 37705.8 433 73 69 Siemens Ger 37357.7 541 74 98 ING Group Net 37345.8 151 75 99 Sony Corporation Jap 37171.3 402 76 101 Deutsche Bank Ger 36991.1 112 77 157 Warner-Lambert US 36661.6 431 78 73 Ameritech Corp US 36646.6 223 79 119 Elf Aquitaine Fra 35997.4 212 80 75 Oracle Corp US 35726.4 482 81 23 Sanwa Bank Jap 35532.0 112 82 22 Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank Jap 35374.5 112 83 112 Allstate Corp US 34882.8 152 84 201 Telecom Italia Ita 34666.1 223 85 92 Honda Motor Jap 33939.6 401 86 61 McDonalds Corp US 32766.0 464 87 158 Banc One Corp US 32564.0 112 88 96 Texaco US 32451.9 212 89 491 Dell Computer Corp US 32046.3 531 90 Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Discover US 31999.1 121 91 421 Gazprom Rus 31947.1 222 92 21 Fuji Bank Jap 31886.7 112 93 401 Worldcom US 31817.6 223 94 20 Industrial Bank of Japan Jap 31518.9 112 95 79 Seven-Eleven Japan Jap 31217.9 493 96 198 Time Warner Inc US 30810.7 472 97 103 Zeneca UK 30735.3 433 98 86 Astra Swe 29673.2 433 99 91 Union Bank of Switzerland Swi 29632.6 112 100 Halifax UK 29368.5 112

To: Cheryl Galt who wrote (13580)	1/22/1998 8:56:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

The top 500 companies can be accessed at: ft.com but registration may be required.