Johnson & Johnson to acquire Ambrx in $2 billion deal

Johnson & Johnson
JNJ,
-0.53%
said Monday it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Ambrx Biopharma Inc.
AMAM,
-0.32%.
The all-cash merger transaction has a total equity value of approximately $2 billion, or $1.9 billion net of estimated cash acquired, Johnson & Johnson said. Ambrx is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a proprietary synthetic biology technology platform to design and develop next-generation antibody drug conjugates, or ADCs. Johnson & Johnson’s stock fell 0.5% in premarket trades Monday, while Ambrx shares climbed 28.8%. Johnson & Johnson shares were down 8.2% in the last 52 weeks, compared with the S&P 500 index’s
SPX,
+0.08%
gain of 20.6%. Ambrx’s stock has soared 542.9% in the last 52 weeks.