The proposed £32bn merger of the US pharmaceutical company AbbVie and Dublin-based Shire has been called off, the two companies announced on 20 October 2014.
AbbVie had a change of heart after it received a US treasury notice about the merger and decided that it could no longer recommend that its shareholders vote in favour of the move.
Details of the notice were not revealed but AbbVie said that it had introduced an “unacceptable level of risk and uncertainty” that meant that the deal, which had been agreed in July 2014, was now off.
AbbVie was due to pay Shire a $1.63bn break fee.
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