Omnicare sues PharMerica to force buyout

Things got even more interesting this week between the top two U.S. institutional pharmacy services providers when Omnicare Inc. filed suit against PharMerica Corp. in an attempt to force the company’s board of directors to consider a $440 million purchase offer.

“Omnicare sued the directors after they rejected an Aug. 23 offer of $15 a share, 37 percent higher than PharMerica’s previous closing price on Aug. 22,” Bloomberg reported, citing the complaint filed in a Wilmington, Delaware court.

In the lawsuit, Omnicare states that PharMerica’s refusal to participate in the proposed transaction deprives the company’s stockholders the “right to decide for themselves whether to realize an extremely valuable opportunity.”

When Omnicare went public last month with its bid for PharMerica—a deal that was privately made on July 19—PharMerica responded by saying the purchase would be subject to “significant regulatory uncertainty” and antitrust issues. Omnicare fired back in disagreement with PharMerica’s analysis of the bid, stating, “We remain firmly committed to pursuing this transaction and continue to be very confident in our ability to consummate a transaction expeditiously.”

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