Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced the successful completion of the cash tender offer, through a subsidiary, for all of the outstanding shares of common stock of ArQule, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARQL) at a purchase price of $20.00 per share. As of the tender offer expiration, 103,394,298 shares of common stock of ArQule were validly tendered and not withdrawn from the tender offer, representing approximately 75.3 percent of the outstanding common stock of ArQule on a fully diluted basis. All such shares have been accepted for payment in accordance with the terms of the tender offer, and Merck expects to promptly pay for such shares.
Over a period of more than a year, the execs at ArQule had one fling after the next with potential partners, but either got left at the deal altar or were jilted by cheap suitors. Then Merck stepped in and swept them up with a short, intense round of negotiations in the lead-up to ASH.
Merck to Acquire ArQule, Advancing Leadership in Oncology
BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ArQule, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARQL) today announced final results from the phase 1 study for ARQ 531, an orally bioavailable, potent and reversible dual inhibitor of both wild type and C481S-mutant Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) in patients with relapsed or refractory hematologic malignancies at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2019 Annual Meeting & Exposition in Orlando, Florida.