The slow and complicated tango between Pfizer and America Home Products over a possible take-over by one of the two companies of Warner-Lambert (PJ, November 13, 1999, p779) took a further step on January 13. Warner-Lambert announced that it was "exploring strategic alternatives" to its planned merger with AHP, including meeting with Pfizer.
At the same time, AHP was reported to be considering restructuring and possibly selling part of the company. According to a report in the Financial Times on January 17, AHP may extract a break-up fee of $2bn or more from Warner-Lambert in return for giving up on the proposed merger. This would then be the third merger deal to have collapsed under AHP, after previous discussions with Smithkline Beecham and Monsanto also failed.