MRK Merck and Co Inc

By Colin Kellaher

Shares of Seagen Inc. rose 5% in premarket trading Thursday after The Wall Street Journal reported that Merck & Co. is closing in on a takeover of the biotechnology company in a deal that could be worth $40 billion or more.

The Journal, which last month reported that Merck was circling Seagen, said the companies are discussing a purchase price topping $200 a share.

That is well above Wednesday's closing price of $175.13 and more than 35% above the Seattle company's closing price of share price of $146.78 on June 16, before the initial report from The Journal.

Shares of Seattle-based Seagen, which currently sports a market capitalization of around $32.5 billion, were recently changing hands at $183.87, up 5%, in premarket trading.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 07, 2022 06:16 ET (10:16 GMT)

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