Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1.0, Northumbria University (Newcastle Business School), course: International Finance and Financial Management, language: English, abstract: The pharmaceutical sector has experienced a year of heavy consolidations, with a record breaking M&A; volume of $250bn in 2014. From a shareholder perspective this should, however, cause serious concern as the deals very rarely maximise the owner¿s wealth. An illustration of this is the failed acquisition of AstraZeneca by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in spring 2014, when the British, despite strong strategic synergies, decided to reject an $117bn takeover bid, due to an insufficient price-offer.