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| Pfizer makes new £55 per share offer for AstraZeneca | Pfizer makes new £55 per share offer for AstraZeneca |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Drugs giant Pfizer has made an improved offer of £55 per share for AstraZeneca. | Drugs giant Pfizer has made an improved offer of £55 per share for AstraZeneca. |
| If the offer - a mixture of shares and cash which values AstraZeneca at about £69bn - is accepted by its board, it will be the largest takeover of a firm in British corporate history. | |
| The offer constitutes a 15% increase from Pfizer's proposal on 2 May. | The offer constitutes a 15% increase from Pfizer's proposal on 2 May. |
| Pfizer plans to create the world's largest drug company, with its headquarters in New York, but based in the UK for tax purposes. | |
| The new offer is final and cannot be increased, it said. | |
| Not hostile | |
| The US company increased the cash element of its bid and also promised not to mount a hostile takeover - that is, a direct approach to shareholders of AstraZeneca without the involvement of its board. | |
| Shareholders are being offered £24.76 in cash and 1.747 shares in the new firm, worth a combined £55, per share they hold. | |
| Both unions and politicians had voiced their concerns the company could cut UK jobs to save money. | |
| But Pfizer chief executive Ian Read said in the statement: "We stand by our unprecedented commitments to the UK government." |