Pfizer’S Merger Bid Gets Cool Reception

A slide in Pfizer Inc.’s stock Friday shaved billions of dollars off its hostile bid for Warner-Lambert Co. as American Home Products Corp. stood by its agreement to combine with Warner-Lambert.

Pfizer’s shares fell $2.50 Friday to $34.75 as the most active issue on the New York Stock Exchange as investors worried about the price the company would be willing to pay for Warner-Lambert.

The all-stock offer, originally worth $82.4 billion when it was unveiled Thursday, had tumbled to $74 billion by the time markets closed Friday.

The proposed American Home Products merger with Warner-Lambert was worth $71 billion when it was announced early Thursday and was valued at $70 billion Friday.

Shares of American Home ended unchanged Friday at $55 on the NYSE, where Warner-Lambert dipped 6-1/4 cents to $89.93-3/4.

Warner-Lambert’s board of directors met late Thursday to discuss the Pfizer bid, and decided that the agreement with American Home Products remained “in the best long-term interests of our shareholders, colleagues and the communities in which we live and work.”