Item 1.01 Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement.
On November 23, 2008, King Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Tennessee corporation
("King"), Albert Acquisition Corp., a Delaware corporation and a wholly owned
subsidiary of King ("Purchaser"), and Alpharma Inc., a Delaware corporation
("Alpharma"), entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the "Merger
Agreement") pursuant to which (i) Purchaser has agreed to amend the tender offer
it commenced on September 12, 2008 (the "Initial Offer" and, as amended, the
"Offer") to purchase all of the issued and outstanding shares of Class A common
stock, par value $0.20 per share, of Alpharma (the "Alpharma Common Stock"),
together with the associated preferred stock purchase rights (the "Rights" and,
together with the Alpharma Common Stock, the "Shares") at a price equal to
$37.00 per Share net to the seller in cash, without interest and subject to any
required withholding taxes (the "Offer Price"), and (ii) following the
consummation of the Offer, Purchaser will merge with and into Alpharma (the
"Merger"), pursuant to which each outstanding Share not purchased in the Offer
will be converted into the right to receive the Offer Price, except for those
Shares held by King, Purchaser or Alpharma, and other than those Shares with
respect to which appraisal rights are properly exercised. After the Merger,
Alpharma will become a wholly owned subsidiary of King.
The Merger Agreement provides that Purchaser will amend the Initial Offer as
promptly as reasonably practicable to reflect the terms and conditions of the
Merger Agreement. Purchaser's obligation to accept for payment and pay for the
Shares tendered in the Offer is subject to various conditions set forth in the
Merger Agreement, including, among other things: (1) the tender of Shares
representing at least a majority of the voting power of the outstanding voting
securities of Alpharma, calculated on a fully diluted basis, (2) the absence of
any law, injunction, judgment or ruling restraining or prohibiting the Offer or
the Merger, imposing material limitations on King or Purchaser's acquisition or
ownership of the Shares or imposing a Materially Burdensome Condition (as
defined in the Merger Agreement), (3) the absence of any pending or threatened
claim, action, suit, complaint, proceeding, investigation or litigation
restraining or prohibiting the Offer or the Merger, imposing material
limitations on King or Purchaser's acquisition or ownership of the Shares or
imposing a Materially Burdensome Condition, (4) the expiration or termination of
any waiting period (and any extensions thereof) under the Hart-Scott-Rodino
Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (the "HSR Act"), without any
Materially Burdensome Condition being imposed, (5) the accuracy of the
representations and warranties of Alpharma, subject to certain materiality
exceptions, (6) Alpharma's compliance in all material respects with its
covenants and agreements under the Merger Agreement and (7) the absence of a
material adverse effect on Alpharma having occurred since December 31, 2007.
Subject to certain conditions and limitations, Alpharma has granted to
Purchaser a "top-up option" requiring Alpharma to issue to Purchaser, following
consummation of the Offer, a number of newly issued Shares that, when added to
the number of Shares owned by Purchaser immediately prior to the exercise of the
option, constitutes one Share more than 90% of the number of Shares outstanding
after such exercise. The exercise price of the top-up option is equal to the
Offer Price per Share and is payable by Purchaser, at its discretion, in cash or
by promissory note.
The closing of the Merger is subject to customary closing conditions. The
parties have agreed that if, following completion of the Offer and the exercise
of the top-up option (if applicable), King and Purchaser own more than 90% of
the outstanding Shares, then the Merger will be completed without a meeting of
Alpharma's stockholders, pursuant to Delaware's "short-form" merger statute.
The Merger Agreement contains customary representations, warranties and
covenants of the parties. In particular, the Merger Agreement contains
restrictions on Alpharma's ability to solicit third party proposals or provide
information to, or participate in discussions or negotiations with, third
parties regarding competing proposals. However, the Merger Agreement contains
customary exceptions that
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allow Alpharma to provide information to, and participate in, discussions or
negotiations with third parties with respect to competing proposals in limited
circumstances.
The Merger Agreement provides that, in connection with the termination of the
Merger Agreement under specified circumstances, including a termination by
Alpharma in order to enter into a binding agreement implementing a Superior
Proposal (as defined in the Merger Agreement), Alpharma may be required to pay
King a termination fee of $60 million. In addition, the Merger Agreement
provides that King may be required to pay Alpharma a termination fee of
$60 million in connection with the termination of the Merger Agreement under
certain specified circumstances, including due to the failure to obtain approval
under the HSR Act without the imposition of a Materially Burdensome Condition,
or due to King's failure to obtain the necessary financing to consummate the
Offer.
A copy of the Merger Agreement is attached as Exhibit 2.1 to this report and
is incorporated herein by reference. The foregoing description of the Merger
Agreement does not purport to be complete and is qualified in its entirety by
reference to the Merger Agreement.
The Merger Agreement has been included to provide investors and security
holders with information regarding the terms of the Merger. It is not intended
to provide any other factual information about King, Purchaser or Alpharma. The
representations, warranties and covenants contained in the Merger Agreement,
which were made only for purposes of that agreement and as of specific dates,
were made solely for the benefit of the parties to the Merger Agreement, may be
subject to limitations agreed upon by the contracting parties (including being
qualified by confidential disclosures made for the purposes of allocating
contractual risk between the parties to the Merger Agreement instead of
establishing these matters as facts) and may be subject to standards of
materiality applicable to the contracting parties that differ from those
applicable to investors. Investors should not rely on the representations,
warranties and covenants or any descriptions thereof as characterizations of the
actual state of facts or the condition of King, Purchaser or Alpharma or any of
their respective subsidiaries or affiliates. Moreover, information concerning
the subject matter of the representations and warranties may change after the
date of the Merger Agreement and such subsequent information may or may not be
fully reflected in public disclosures by King, Purchaser or Alpharma.
Financing Commitment
On November 23, 2008, in connection with the Merger Agreement, King entered
into an amended and restated commitment letter (the "Commitment Letter"),
pursuant to which Credit Suisse, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Wachovia
Bank, National Association, and Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC have committed to
provide financing for the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement. The
Commitment Letter provides for up to $775 million under senior secured credit
facilities. The commitment is subject to various conditions, including
consummation of the Offer in accordance with the Merger Agreement and other
closing conditions which, in some cases, are different than those applicable to
the Offer and the Merger under the Merger Agreement.
The Commitment Letter is attached as Exhibit 10.1 to this report and is
incorporated herein by reference. The foregoing description of the Commitment
Letter is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the
Commitment Letter.
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Item 8.01. Other Events.
On November 24, 2008, King and Alpharma issued a joint press release
regarding the execution of the Merger Agreement. A copy of the press release is
attached as Exhibit 99.1 to this report.
Important Additional Information About the Tender Offer
This report is neither an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to
sell securities of Alpharma. The solicitation and offer to buy Shares will only
be made pursuant to the tender offer statement (including the offer to purchase,
the letter of transmittal and other offer documents), which was initially filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on September 12, 2008
and will be amended to reflect the amended terms of the Offer pursuant to the
terms of the Merger Agreement. The Offer is now scheduled to expire at 5:00 p.m.
New York City time, on Friday, December 19, 2008, unless extended. If the Offer
is extended, King will notify the depositary for the Offer and issue a press
release announcing the extension on or before 9:00 a.m. New York City time, on
the first business day following the date the Offer was scheduled to expire.
Investors and security holders are urged to read the tender offer statement
(including the offer to purchase, the letter of transmittal and other offer
documents) and any other documents relating to the tender offer that are filed
with the SEC carefully and in their entirety because they contain important
information. Investors and security holders can obtain free copies of any such
documents filed with the SEC by King at www.kingpharm.com and through the web
site maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov. Free copies of any such documents can
also be obtained by directing a request to King's information agent, Innisfree
M&A Incorporated, at (877)
687-1875.
Forward Looking Statements
This report contains forward-looking statements, which may be identified by
words such as "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "estimates", "projects",
"intends", "should", "seeks", "future", "continue", or the negative of such
terms, or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject
to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that are difficult to
predict and that could cause actual results to vary materially from those
expressed in or indicated by them. Factors that could cause actual results to
differ materially include, but are not limited to: (1) the occurrence of any
event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of
the Merger Agreement; (2) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be
instituted against King, Alpharma and others following announcement of the
Merger Agreement; (3) the inability to complete the Offer or the Merger due or
to the failure to satisfy the conditions to the Offer and the Merger, including
obtaining at least a majority of Alpharma's shares in the Offer, or the
expiration of the waiting period under the HSR Act; (4) the inability to
complete the Offer due to King's inability to obtain financing, (5) risks that
the proposed transaction will disrupt current plans and operations and potential
difficulties in employee retention as a result of the Offer or the Merger;
(6) the ability to recognize the benefits of the Merger; (7) the increased
leverage as a result of the transaction; (8) legislative, regulatory and
economic developments; and (9) other factors described in filings with the SEC.
Many of the factors that will determine the outcome of the subject matter of
this communication are beyond King's and Alpharma's ability to control or
predict. The companies can give no assurance that the conditions to the Offer
and the Merger will be satisfied or that any of the transactions related to the
Offer will be completed. King does not undertake any obligation to revise or
update any forward-looking statement, or to make any other forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
King is not responsible for updating the information contained in this
communication beyond the published date.
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