Japan's Takeda to buy Shire in record $62.5 bn deal.

Drug giant Takeda on Tuesday said it would buy Irish pharmaceuticals firm Shire in a deal worth $62.5 billion, the biggest foreign takeover ever by a Japanese firm.

The deal, which will create one of the world's top 10 drug companies, caps a lengthy courtship by Takeda of its larger rival as it seeks to expand overseas.

Shire last month said its board would recommend the £46 billion bid "subject to satisfactory resolution of the other terms of the possible offer".

And on Tuesday, Takeda announced the boards of the two companies "have reached agreement on the terms of a recommended offer pursuant to which" the Japanese firm will buy Shire.

The announcement follows a string of lower offers rejected by Shire over the past month.

By AFP.

Full story at Yahoo News.