Philadelphia

Philly's Spark Therapeutics Sells for $4.3 Billion

The FTC clears Roche's path to buy Spark Therapeutics

A scientist holds a sample
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The Federal Trade Commission and European regulators cleared Roche's proposed $4.3 billion purchase of Spark Therapeutics, paving the way for its acquisition of the Philadelphia gene therapy pioneer to be completed Tuesday.

Roche entered into an agreement to buy Spark (NASDAQ: ONCE) in February. Its tender offer to Spark shareholders, however, was extended 10 times to provide additional time for the Federal Trade Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority to complete their reviews of the deal.

No conditions were placed on either company by regulators.

Roche of Basel, Switzerland, said Tuesday morning that about 23.3 million shares of Spark’s common stock were validly tendered at the $114.50 per share offer price as of 5 p.m. Monday. That number represents about 60.4% of the total number of shares of Spark’s common stock outstanding.

For more on the multi-billion dollar sale, click here.

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