Top Mergers and Acquisitions: Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline
Price: $20 billion
The pharmaceutical industry saw a flurry of mergers and acquisitions this year, but none was more complicated than this one. Novartis AG (NVS) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) agreed to swap $20 billion in assets in what amounted to major restructurings for both firms.
Novartis bought GlaxoSmithKline’s cancer drug business, GSK took Novartis’s vaccine business, and the companies agreed to combine their respective over-the-counter and consumer drug businesses.