Valeant's offer for Salix Pharma was raised to US$173 cash per share from US$158 last month. Salix agreed to this new rate.

Endo's offer, meanwhile, stood at US$172.56 cash per share as of Friday's close, falling from the preliminary $175 offer. This brief competition between Valeant and Salix put Valeant's CEO Michael Pearson against Rajiv De Silva, a key officer at Valeant until 2012 and now CEO of Salix.

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Valeant's new bid would give Salix shareholders US$1 billion additional cash. It would also, according to the company, offer Salix an enterprise value of approxiamtely US$15.8 billion.

This would be the largest acquisition of Valeant, who has been cutting costs and buying out companies to grow the company. This is also seen as a good comeback for CEO Michael Pearson whose bid last year for Allergan, Inc. lost.

Bill Ackman, who bought more than US$3billion worth of shares in Valeant, likewise sees this in a positive light, having been part of the Allergan bid team.

However, this acquisition comes at the cost of higher debt for Valeant who last year had to cut its full year earnings forecast following higher supply levels for certain drugs.

In the meantime, Valeant broadcasted a US$1.45 billion share offering, net proceeds of which-along with borrowed funds and cash on hand-would be used for the takeover of Salix. Sources say the company would not raise more debt to fund the acquision, reports IFR (a Thomson Reuters publicaiton.)

Meanwhile, Endo International Plc. announced that it would withdraw its bid, refocusing its energies on other potential deals and research and development projects.

Endo shares picked up by 2.7 percent on the Nasdaq Index to US$89.65.

TagsValeant, Acquisition, Salix Pharma, Endo International