Yamanouchi/Fujisawa Merger: Closing Japanese Options

Executive Summary

The Yamanouchi/Fujisawa acquisition may be the most important transaction to have occured in Japan in decades--or will be if it goes through. One key element: the deal ends important merger options for mid-size Japanese companies, who had more or less closed off transaction possibilities with Western companies at least partly in the hope of being able to do an intra-Japan deal. Now the Western firms have decided to build their own Japanese infrastructure, leaving the mid-sized firms without the strategic flexibility they once thought they had.