Valeant withdraws offer to purchase Ista

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — Valeant Pharmaceuticals International has withdrawn its offer to acquire Ista Pharmaceuticals, according to a press release from the company.

The initial unsolicited offer was made in mid-December. It called for Valeant to pay $6.50 per share in cash, or about $327 million. In mid-January, the offer was increased to $7.50 per share in cash, with the suggestion of possibly rising to $8.50 per share in cash based on the outcome of Ista's confirmatory due diligence.

The $7.50 offer was to remain in place until Jan. 31, but Valeant withdrew the offer Jan. 30 based on lack of progress, according to the release.

"As we stated last December, we were not interested in participating in a lengthy evaluation process, and we are disappointed that the Ista team was not willing to fully explore our proposal by January 31," J. Michael Pearson, chairman and CEO of Valeant, said in the release. "We continue to be disciplined on our [merger and acquisition] strategy, and we are actively working on other opportunities that we believe can create value for our shareholders. We wish the Ista team well in their future endeavors."

Ista announced in a press release that it will continue to review its strategic options to maximize shareholder value.

"We repeatedly offered Valeant the opportunity to participate in our strategic review process on a level playing field with others, but it was clear Valeant was only interested in an approach that would have effectively excluded others. We informed Valeant that there were simply too many other companies that had indicated strong interest in Ista for us to take that approach," Vicente Anido Jr., PhD, president and CEO of Ista, said in the release.