serono: Swiss miss

Ernesto Bertarelli, Serono’s multi-billionaire boss and controlling shareholder, now has a pick of unpleasant choices. He has failed to find anyone willing to pay $15bn for the Swiss biotech group. A sale is still possible as Glaxo appears interested in buying. But lowering the price weakens his position. And other options such as going it alone may be even less appealing The problem is that there is a lot of uncertainty over the value of Serono’s one really attractive asset - its drug for mult...