Why pay $100B for AstraZeneca? Let Pfizer's CEO count the reasons

FiercePharma | Tracy Staton 

Pfizer considers itself a megamerger expert. And it's hoping to prove that with another megadeal--a $100-billion-or-so buyout of AstraZeneca. After last week's headlines about a possible buyout, both companies confirm that Pfizer is hot to trot and ready to parley.

AstraZeneca? Not so much. The company issued a statement Monday morning, saying that its board decided it's "not appropriate" to talk merger with Pfizer. Yes, Pfizer CEO Ian Read contacted AZ Chairman Leif Johansson in November. And yes, the two companies met in New York in January, where Pfizer made an offer.

Pfizer's post-megamerger cost-cutting record? 51,500 jobs in 7 years

In the calm after yesterday's Pfizer-AstraZeneca deal storm, it's time to survey the potential fallout. Pfizer's aggressive strategy for avoiding taxes, totted up by The Wall Street Journal, politely thumped by the Financial Times and skewered by In the Pipeline. Fears for the U.K. science community, articulated by any number of U.K. newspapers.

We were intrigued by Pfizer CFO Frank D'Amelio's cost-cutting promises Monday. D'Amelio said Pfizer had promised to squeeze out $4 billion in costs after buying Wyeth in 2009--and then beat that number handily. Much of that squeeze came in the form of job cuts, so we totted up some numbers ourselves, with the help of Securities and Exchange Commission filings.