ABT Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories

Earnings Take Hit From EpiPen Woes

The EpiPen pricing controversy roiling Mylan NV has ensnared another large health-care company, albeit indirectly.

Abbott Laboratories, Mylan's largest shareholder, said on Wednesday that it had written down the value of its investment in the EpiPen maker by $947 million to reflect a sharp decline in Mylan's share price through the end of the quarter on Sept. 30.

Abbott said the accounting charge contributed to a $329 million loss in the quarter, or 22 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $580 million, or 38 cents a share.

For now, the write-down is only a paper loss, and could be reduced or even erased if Mylan's share price rebounds before any Abbott sale of the stock. Mylan declined to comment.

Abbott currently owns a roughly 13% stake in Mylan, or nearly 70 million shares.

Abbott has been Mylan's biggest shareholder since selling part of its overseas pharmaceuticals operations to Mylan last year in exchange for 110 million Mylan shares that were valued at $5.77 billion when the transaction closed.

Abbott sold more than a third of the shares last year for $2.29 billion.

--Joseph Walker and Anne Steele

DELL TECHNOLOGIES

Pure Storage Settles Three-Year Fight

Pure Storage Inc. and Dell Technologies ended a three-year legal battle launched by EMC Corp., which was recently acquired by the big computer maker.

Pure Storage agreed to pay Dell $30 million under a settlement disclosed Wednesday.

The settlement removes a longtime worry for Pure Storage, an upstart challenger in the market for data-storage equipment that went public last year.

EMC, an industry pioneer originally known for disk-based systems, is now also a major supplier of systems using flash technology.

EMC, whose $60 billion sale to Dell was completed last month, in 2013 filed a suit that accused Pure Storage of patent infringement, and later filed an additional suit alleging that Pure Storage's hiring of EMC employees amounted to a scheme to steal EMC's confidential information.

Pure Storage denied the allegations and filed counter-charges against EMC.

--Don Clark

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 20, 2016 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)

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