Bayer wins Schering with sweetened bid
: "Bayer AG won a 17 billion euro ($21.5 billion) contest for Schering AG, the world's largest maker of birth-control pills, after German rival Merck KGaA accepted a sweetened offer for its stake.Schering investors will get 89 euros a share, or 3 euros more than Bayer's original bid in March, after Darmstadt-based Merck agreed to sell its 21.8 percent holding.Bayer wants to add Berlin-based Schering's best-selling multiple sclerosis treatment and Yasmin contraceptive pills to help its lagging health unit.

o derail Bayer's plan to become Germany's largest drugmaker.

Bayer's bid of 86 euros a share was accepted by Schering's board in March, beating a 77 euro offer from Merck. Yesterday's offer is 3.5 percent more than Bayer's first bid. Merck will have a one-time gain of 400 million euros in the second quarter. Bayer and Merck said yesterday they will look at other ways to cooperate.

"We're very pleased about Merck's decision, because a lengthy competitive bidding process would have greatly affected Schering's future," Bayer Chief Executive Officer Werner Wenning said in a statement.

Schering sells drugs, such as Betaseron for multiple sclerosis, as well as substances that help make organs visible on imaging such as X-rays. The company lost its U.S. operations around World War II, and the American unit grew into Kenilworth, N.J.-based Schering-Plough Corp. The companies aren't now affiliated.

Betaferon sales rose 11 percent last year to 867 million euros, while sales of Yasmin rose 36 percent to 586 million euros..... "