Pfizer has acquired Allergan for more than $150 billion, a deal that will create the world’s biggest drug maker.
The deal, the largest ever in the healthcare sector and involves Pfizer paying with 11.3 of its shares for each Allergan share. There will also be a small cash component, accounting for less than 10 percent of the value of the deal.
The takeover would be the largest so-called inversion ever. Such deals enable a U.S. company to move abroad and take advantage of a lower corporate tax rate elsewhere, and have remained popular in the face of U.S. efforts to curb them.
Pfizer Chief Executive Ian Read will lead the combined company with Allergan CEO Brent Saunders serving as his No. 2, the people said. Other Allergan executives are expected to join the firm too.
