Pharma BD Deal Intelligence

Merck & Co. Inc. / Rosetta Inpharmatics Inc.

2001 · Acquisition/Merger · $540M · Complete

WRONG BY 63 POINTS

Merck's $620M genomics bet was wound down within a decade — Seattle site shuttered, software unit sold off piecemeal to Microsoft, no drug discovery breakthrough ever publicly attributed to the platform.

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The coverage arc

May 11, 2001 CNN Money Bullish

CNN Money reported the all-stock $620M Merck acquisition of Rosetta at $18/share (0.2352 Merck shares per Rosetta share), an 82% premium framed as a strategic…

Jun 01, 2001 Nature Biotechnology Bullish

Nature Biotechnology coverage 'Merck buys Rosetta' framed the transaction as a flagship pharma move into informational genomics and microarray-driven target…

Source summaries from our enrichment pipeline; follow links for originals.

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All-stock; 0.2352 Merck shares per Rosetta share ($18/share). Original announce value ~$620M, net equity ~$540M. Genomics/microarray informatics platform.

Did it work? Outcome assessment

Merck's $620M genomics bet was wound down within a decade — Seattle site shuttered, software unit sold off piecemeal to Microsoft, no drug discovery breakthrough ever publicly attributed to the platform.

Strategic verdict
Failed to Achieve

Key facts

Related deals — scored

DealYearValueOutcome
Merck & Co. Inc. / Rosetta Inpharmatics Inc. (this deal)2001$540M25
Merck & Co. Inc. / Acceleron Pharma Inc.2021$11.5B90
Merck & Co. Inc. / Peloton Therapeutics Inc.2019$2.2B88
Merck & Co. Inc. / AstraZeneca PLC2017$8.5B87
Merck & Co. Inc. / Moderna, Inc.2022$250M86
Merck & Co. Inc. / Moderna, Inc.2016$250M84
Merck & Co. Inc. / Eisai Co., Ltd.2018$5.8B83

Compare all 7 side-by-side →

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