Omnicare cancels takeover attempt of Pharmerica

Omnicare, Inc., announced this week that it will not renew its offer to acquire all common stock of PharMerica Corporation, which expired on February 17, 2012.

The Federal Trade Commission filed suit in late January against Omnicare to block the hostile takeover, alleging that the combination of the two largest U.S. LTC pharmacies would have harmed competition and enabled Omnicare to raise the price of drugs for Medicare Part D consumers.

"While we continue to strongly disagree with the FTC's decision to seek to block the proposed transaction, we do not believe it is prudent to invest significant time and money in a lawsuit at this time,” Omnicare said in a statement.

The Omnicare and PharMerica saga first began in July 2011 when PharMerica rejected an unsolicited acquisition bid from Omnicare. PharMerica had rejected all bids by Omnicare since.

Omnicare also released its end-of-year financials, posting a profit of $359.7 million in 4Q2011. Profits for all 2011 increased 3.1 percent, the company said.