It’s been a busy week for massive pharma deals. After a nine-month corporate struggle, Roche has finally clinched a complete merger with Genentech, offering $46.8 billion – or $95 a share – for the 44% of the biotechnology firm that it doesn’t already own.

The offer, described as a ‘friendly agreement’ [press release], comes days after Merck and Schering-Plough shook hands on a $41 million merger, and six weeks after Pfizer snapped up Wyeth for $68 billion.

Analysts think Roche has done well to get Genentech’s board onside for under $100 a share – some were predicting much higher sums. The board had earlier rejected sub-$90 a share offers. And Roche also managed to push through an agreement before clinical trial results due in April, which are expected to drive up Genentech’s value by expanding the use of its blockbuster anticancer drug Avastin.

Details of the combined company’s operations have also been released – but there is no clear picture yet on how many jobs might go.

The Genentech brand won’t vanish: the combined company’s US commercial pharma arm will operate under the Genentech name, and be headquartered in South San Francisco.

Research and early development, meanwhile, will operate “as an independent center within Roche from Genentech’s existing base in South San Francisco, retaining its talent and approach to discovering and progressing new molecules.” [press release, New York Times]

But as The Guardian notes, job losses must be expected somewhere. In the US alone, the pair employ around 17,000 staff, and Roche says it wants to save between $750 million and $850 million in costs.

The combined operation will be the seventh largest US pharmaceuticals company in terms of market share, generating $17 billion in revenues a year. The deal requires a majority of Genentech shareholders to give up their holdings by 25 March, and Roche chairman Franz Humer said he expected it to complete quickly.

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