Pfizer is an American pharmaceutical company that makes Viagra to increase many men’s sexual activity, and Lipitor to prevent strokes and heart attacks (my lay language, not the more precise Pfizer claims). AstraZeneca is a British pharmaceutical company that makes cancer and other drugs. Pfizer says AstraZeneca faces “difficult challenges” because patents on many of its drugs will expire soon and offers to be helpful by buying the company for $106 billion (£63 billion). AstraZeneca says no thanks, it has a bright future as an independent company, and if it were to sell, it would want a lot more than a mere $106 billion. Pfizer says fine, we want “constructive engagement” with you, and might up our offer if you show us the books, to which AstraZenaca replies, in essence, “not on your life,” even a life prolonged by the use of both companies’ drugs.

Oh, by the way, Pfizer wants to save on its taxes and get access to the cash it has stashed away outside of the reach of the rapacious U.S. tax collector, preferring instead the welcoming lower rates on offer by UK Chancellor of the Exchequer the Rt. Hon. George Osborne. By one reckoning, Pfizer could save about $1 billion per year in income taxes, and finance the merger with some of the $57 billion in cash it has stashed abroad, rather than repatriating it into the welcoming arms of the IRS.  Some experts doubt that the savings would be so great, but all agree that we are talking about a lot more than petty cash.