September 21, 2006 -- The German Merck offered to pay $13.3 billion for Serono, an 18% premium to the closing price yesterday. Serono, a Swiss biotech company, put itself up for sale a year ago, and then stopped the process when no satisfactory bids emerged. Although Serono brings biotech capability to Merck, the logic behind the merger was not overwhelming. We look at the numbers and the fit between the two companies...
