BusinessWeek on Pfizer buying Wyeth

With a headline Pfizer CEO: Wyeth Takeover Will Be Different, BusinessWeek quickly noted:

Nevertheless, cost-cutting there will be. Pfizer expects to achieve about $4 billion in "synergies" by 2012, enabling it to reduce the combined workforce of the two companies by 15%, or some 20,000 jobs. As part of those synergies, Pfizer announced Monday [26 Jan 09] that it will eliminate 8,000 jobs, 10% of its workforce. It is closing five of its 46 manufacturing plants.

Pfizer's take-over of Pharmacia was related to the ill-fated Celebrex. Pfizer's take-over of Warner-Lambert was related to Lipitor.

See also

What happened to the guy who developed Lipitor?

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See also Duff Wilson of the NYT, For Pfizer, a Big Deal and a Test which included text:

The companies’ combined work force of 128,000 will shed 19,000 jobs. Pfizer will slash its stock dividend in half. And Pfizer is taking a $2.3 billion charge to settle a federal investigation over illegal off-label promotion of its former painkiller, Bextra.

Investors celebrated Mr. Kindler’s big day by sending Pfizer’s stock down more than 10 percent.