Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited to Sack 1,500 Cephalon, Inc. Workers

Market sources report that Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) is firing 1,000 employees, less than a month after it completed the acquisition of Cephalon. Teva expects at least $500 million in synergies from the acquisition - and they will come from layoffs. The firings account for 27% of Cephalon's workforce before its acquisition - a very high proportion. For the sake of comparison, Teva fired fewer than 10% of Barr's employees following its acquisition in 2008. Teva is not firing employees in Israel; most of the layoffs will be in Europe and the US.