Bergen Brunswig Sues, And IVAX Countersues

Following the termination of the planned $1.65 billion merger betweenthe two US companies Bergen Brunswig and IVAX Corp (Marketletter March 31), the latter is countersuing the former, which had brought a suit against IVAX for breach of agreement in connection with the termination of the merger.

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, IVAX said it does not feel BB had a legal right to end the merger and it "intends to defend the suit vigorously and pursue a counterclaim for breach of agreement."

IVAX noted that it has a stake of 12,157,432 class A common shares of BB, or 24.3%. In its original filing on BB in November last year (Marketletters passim), IVAX had said that its stake consisted of an option from BB to buy up to 9,953,076 shares and a voting agreement with BB's chief executive, Robert Martini, who said that he then owned 2,137,958 shares. A BB spokesperson said the company did not know of any stake held by IVAX in BB aside from the option.