Current trading price/sh: $6.19

From Reuters:

“Dow Jones reported that Lundbeck A/S a Danish pharmaceutical company, is interested in buying Elan Corporation, plc, the Irish Independent reported, without citing sources.” (source)

From WSJ on Feb 9:

“Elan Corp. (ELN) said Monday that Citigroup Global Markets Inc.’s strategic review of the drug company’s options will be ready in around 10 weeks, but said it hasn’t yet made a final decision on the way forward.” (source)

Looks like they are serious about looking for a possible sale.  We’ll start watching it again towards the middle/ed of April ‘09 (Apr 20th the “report” is due) for that report they are talking about.  Chance are mgmt will know ahead of time, so maybe I’ll start watching in March instead (for any signs of an up tic/down tic with no other news correlations).

All that being said, their CFO said he would prefer to just sell a minority stake in the company:

“Elan’s chief financial officer, Shane Cooke, said the sale of a minority interest was one option and was perhaps a “preference.”" (source)

… if that scenario bears, this will not be a good deal for me– 1) No buyout 2) Selling a minority interest will most likely dilute current shareholder value, thus dropping the stock price (and I do not want to buy to hold anyway).

My M&A Status: Still watching, but not buying this one yet.