Schering

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Schering AG

Type	Public
Founded	1851
Headquarters	Berlin-Wedding, Germany
Key people	Hubertus Erlen, CEO
Industry	Pharmaceutical
Products	Gynaecology & Andrology Special therapeutics Diagnostical devices & Nuclear medicine Oncology
Revenue	€ 5 billion (2003)
Employees	26,000 (2004)
Slogan	Making medicine work
Website	www.schering.de

For the American pharmaceutical company created by seizure of assets from Schering AG during World War II, see Schering-Plough.

Schering AG (FWB: SCH, NYSE: SHR) is a research-centered pharmaceutical company founded in 1851. It employs more than 26,000 people in 140 subsidiaries all over the world. The company's headquarters are in Berlin-Wedding, Germany. Schering's annual gross revenue was nearly € 5 billion (2003).

Schering AG focuses on the following business areas:

Gynaecology & andrology
Special therapeutics
Diagnostical devices & nuclear medicine
Oncology

The company's founder was Ernst Schering (1824-1889).

The largest German manufacturing facility is located in Bergkamen.

Schering best-known product is probably the birth control pill.

Schering uses the Berlex Laboratories brand in the USA.

[edit] Bayer's Takeover Bid

On March 13, 2006, Merck KGaA announced a €14.6bn bid for Schering [1]. The offer document was due to be issued in early April 2006.

Merck's takeover bid was surpassed by Bayer's $19.5B white-knight bid for Schering on March 23, 2006. In June 2006 Bayer finally bought the majority of shares, over 90%. A domination agreement using the code name "Step One" was used for the take-over. On February 17, 2007 the company publically announced that 1,000 jobs would be cut through voluntary redundancy from the Berlin operations with effect until March 2008.