The topic for the evening will be “Roche’s Acquisition of Genentech: A View from the Top” and will take place at Wharton|San Francisco, 101 Howard Street (at Spear). A map with directions to our campus and local parking venues can be accessed here:
http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/locations/visiting-wharton-in-san-franci.cfm. In March of 2009, Roche acquired the 44% of Genentech it did not own for a cash price of $48.6 billion. Roche, a giant pharmaceutical company based in Switzerland, had acquired a majority stake in Genentech back in 1990 as part of an ongoing collaboration between the companies in the area of product development. Genentech, based in South San Francisco, is one of the world’s leading biotech companies known for its independent and free-wheeling culture of innovation and discovery. The merger of the two companies followed a period of several months of negotiations to reach an agreement. In February of 2009, Roche initiated a hostile tender offer to purchase the minority shares not owned by Roche, following the rejection by a special committee of the Genentech board in 2008 of merger terms proposed by Roche. Additional negotiations in the face of the tender offer continued, and the boards of the two companies reached a definitive agreement in March 2009. The combination of the two companies was completed in April 2009. Our speaker will be Steve Krognes, Genentech’s Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He was formerly the head of Roche’s M&A Group, with oversight responsibility on behalf of Roche for the negotiation and implementation of the merger. From this unique “before and after” vantage point, Steve will share his perspectives on • Roche's decision to pursue a full takeover of Genentech after almost 20 years of partnership between the two companies, • the different stages of the transaction process, including how Roche raised $40 billion in debt financing in the middle of the 2008/2009 financial crisis, and • Roche's approach to integrating the two companies. As a footnote, it should be pointed out that FORTUNE named Genentech one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" for the 12th consecutive year. Genentech is the only biotech/pharmaceutical company since 2000 to be ranked among the top 20. Prior to joining Genentech in 2009, Steve served as global head of Mergers & Acquisitions for Roche. Prior to this, he worked as a venture capitalist in Scandinavia, as an M&A investment banker with Goldman Sachs and Danske Bank, and as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co. Krognes was based in London for five years and another three in the United States. He is a second lieutenant in the Royal Norwegian Air Force. Steve holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. Our schedule for the evening of July 15: • 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm: Please join us for drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and a social hour with Wharton alumni, current students and their guests. • 7:00 pm to 8:15 pm: A one hour presentation by Steve, to be followed by 15 minutes of questions and answers. • 8:15 pm to 9:00 pm: We will adjourn and encourage everyone to continue socializing, with drinks and snacks provided.
