IMS Health bought for $5.2 billion

IMS Health Inc., which provides market research to the pharmaceutical and health-care industries, said today that it agreed to be acquired for $5.2 billion, including the assumption of debt.

The buyers are private-equity firm TPG Capital and the investment board of the Canada Pension Plan.

IMS headquarters are in Norwalk, Conn., but its major employment center - with about 1,000 people - is in Blue Bell.

The company employs 7,500 people globally, but it is still completing 850 job cuts announced in July. It expects about 170 of those dismissals to occur in the United States.

The agreement calls for IMS shareholders to receive about $4 billion - $22 cash for each share of IMS common stock - a 31 percent premium over yesterday's close. Today, shares closed up $3.92, or 23.32 percent, to $20.73.

The deal with TPG Capital and the CPP Investment Board, which invests funds not immediately needed by the Canada Pension Plan, is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2010.

The cash portion of the deal represents the biggest leverage buyout this year, Reuters reported, based on data from Thomson Reuters.

IMS Health, which has operations in more than 100 countries, had $2.3 billion in 2008 revenue. The company last month reported a third-quarter loss because of restructuring costs and said revenue slid 6 percent to $540.8 million.