Teva has been one of my most frustrating investments over the last several years. The business is the largest generic drug manufacturer in the world and benefits from tremendous scale advantages. There has been a considerable amount of concern pertaining to the pending expiration of Copaxone in May of 2014, which accounts for 20% of revenues. The CEO just quit in October after only serving for a little over a year. This company’s Board of Directors is a joke and the company has been completely mismanaged. There have been numerous manufacturing problems and weak capital allocation. The merger with Cephalon has not materially benefited the company and management has not utilized the cheap stock price to buy back stock aggressively, which would make a lot of sense at the current valuation. Much of Teva’s future will come down to the pipeline, which is notoriously difficult to predict. I believe that Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) is the most likely merger of equals candidate. The company is superbly managed and focuses on buying low-risk products and leveraging its distribution capabilities, while aggressively cutting costs. Valeant has skillfully utilized the low interest rate environment to invest in businesses that have been highly accretive. I’ve continued to add to my position in Teva as the stock is simply to cheap to ignore.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-19/leaderless-teva-seen-beckoning-mylan-merger-real-m-a.html