Squibb’s revenge?

Executive Summary

The rumored acquisition of Bristol-Myers Squibb by GlaxoSmithKline would be the latest and largest ripple effect from the Bristol/Squibb integration in 1989. The two CEOs who drove the Glaxo/SmithKline merger at the end of the 1990s (Glaxo's Richard Sykes and SmithKline's Jan Leschly) were both former Squibb execs who learned firsthand the perils of a lack of scale during a period of consolidation. While both Sykes and Leschly have retired, the logic and momentum behind the strategy they pursued is a prime factor driving GSK's interest in Bristol...