Shire ‘dumbfounded’ by AbbVie deal collapse

Shire CEO Flemming Ornskov was preparing for a meeting in Chicago on the integration of his company with AbbVie when he got the news that AbbVie was reconsidering the $52bn (€40bn) takeover.

“We were as dumbfounded as anyone else was who observed it from the outside,” said Ornskov. “Their loss is our gain.”

The two companies this week said they had agreed to terminate the deal, which would have been the biggest tax inversion to date.