Ahhh, where are the days of the early 2000s (hell, even the days of 1H08) when you could sell an overvalued company or stock and walk away with some nice greenbacks? We all miss those days. Not only does the economy suck, but people are smarter too – and no longer willing to pony up cash if they don’t need to, especially if a balance sheet doesn’t look perfect.

Iceland’s Actavis is feeling this pain today, as Bloomberg is reporting that the generic drug maker’s plan to sell itself has been scrapped. The reason: overvaluation (EUR 5B or $6.6B USD) and too much debt. Other reasons given were the credit markets of course, as well as a drop in revenue growth and production slowing in the U.S.

Actavis had been looking at offers from Teva, Sanofi and Watson, but reps from all the companies declined to comment on the debacle.

Merrill Lynch is advising Actavis and although Merill was looking for a bid of about EUR 6B, sources say EUR 4-4.5B may be more on par with Actavis’ true value.

Stay tuned…

Image from doughroller

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