NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) July 23, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s (BMS, A+/Stable/A-1) agreement to acquire Medarex Inc. (unrated) for about $2.4 billion has no effect on either the ratings or outlook assigned to BMS. The acquisition will be funded from cash on hand, which stood at $8.9 billion as of March 31, 2009. Recognizing that about $300 million in cash will be acquired from Medarex, the net cash need is $2.1 billion. Because BMS's financial metrics are stronger than our guidelines for the rating, we believe the modest increase in leverage from this transaction will not cause a deterioration in these measures sufficient to call into question the rating. We estimate that
