Will Amgen Buy Out Biogen Idec?

By Tim Plaehn Biogen (BIIB) has seen itself as an acqusition target, while Amgen (AMGN) styles itself an aggressive partner. In my opinion, the time is ripe for the two to merge and, therefore, a tie-up this year is likely. Investors could see significant price appreciation if they understand the reasons and valuations of these two companies. Large cap biotechnology companies Amgen and Biogen Idec posted significantly different results in 2011. Amgen investors saw their share values hover around break-even for most of the year until a final month rally resulted in a 16 percent gain for the year. Biogen investors should be pretty happy with a share value which was up almost 50 percent by the second quarter and finished the year with a 64 percent gain. Is it possible these two biotech companies could join forces and become a very large player in the overall pharmaceutical industry? Investors should know about key potential mergers in this area. In healthcare, a company like Amgen is looking for growth. Over the past three years, Amgen has posted relatively flat revenue and net income growth. Net income per share growth during this period was primarily due to a decreasing number of…