NEW YORK, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Merck & Co (MRK.N) president Kenneth Frazier will succeed Richard Clark as the U.S. drugmaker's chief executive officer, effective Jan 1, the company said on Tuesday.
Frazier, 55, initially made his name at Merck as general counsel by steering the company safely through daunting litigation over its withdrawn Vioxx painkiller, and more recently led the company's high-profile global pharmaceuticals division.
His promotion, which also includes a position on the board, has been expected after the company named him president earlier this year. Clark, who in March turns 65, the mandatory company CEO retirement age, will continue as board chairman.
Frazier, who joined Merck in 1992, previously served as president of the company's global pharmaceuticals division starting in 2007 -- an appointment that expanded his responsibilities beyond legal matters.
In this role, according to Merck, Frazier helped design a new sales model and redeployed resources to emerging markets, where the drugmaker is targeting future growth.
Frazier, who also sits on the board of Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), served as the company's general counsel from 1999, a period that included Merck's withdrawal of Vioxx from the market because of an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
He helped the company fight off thousands of personal injury lawsuits related to the drug's use. Merck eventually settled the litigation for about $4.85 billion, billions less than investors had feared, boosting Frazier's profile within Merck and with Wall Street.
Clark became CEO in 2005, when the company was reeling from the Vioxx withdrawal.
As Merck's head of manufacturing, Clark was a fairly obscure figure when he was picked to replace then-CEO Ray Gilmartin in 2005.
But he emerged as one of the industry's most aggressive CEOs, controlling the Vioxx fallout and leading a cost-cutting and efficiency drive at the drugmaker.
His moves to acquire products outside of Merck's vaunted laboratories culminated in the $41 billion acquisition of rival U.S. drugmaker Schering-Plough Corp last year.
Merck shares were down 6 cents at $34.63 in thin premarket trading.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Marinette High School Hostage Situation – Wisconsin Student Shoots Himself
CHICAGO — A 15-year-old youth took 23 students and a teacher hostage at a high school in a small Wisconsin town before turning the gun on himself, police said.
The youth was hospitalized with a gunshot wound, with no immediate word on his condition, but the captives were unharmed, according to officials in Marinette, Wisconsin, where the drama unfolded Monday.
Marinette police chief Jeff Skorik said earlier reports on social network sites that students had been injured in the attack were incorrect.
Skorik told a late night press conference the student who had held the hostages shot himself as police approached him after officers had heard three gunshots go off in the classroom.
The male gunman, who was not identified, was transported to a local hospital where his condition or the nature of the injuries was not known late Monday.
"Emergency rescue personnel on stand-by treated the suspect and transported him to Bay Area Medical Center," a police statement said.
The drama came to an end at 8:03 pm (0103 GMT Tuesday) moments after the gunman had released five students to allow them to use the washrooms.
After hearing gunfire, officers who had been in dialogue with the teacher, immediately entered the room, and saw the boy shoot himself.
"The officers breached the door, entered the classroom and saw the suspect in front of the classroom," Skorik said. "At that time the suspect fired one shot, injured himself with a self-inflicted gunshot wound." Skorik did not say where he was shot.
The hostage-taker, an unidentified student, entered the classroom toward the end of the school day, around 3:00 pm (2000 GMT).
Police had been hoping to resolve the drama without violence. "The game plan all along was to have the situation end peacefully," Skorik said.
The youth, a student at Marinette High School, had entered the classroom with two handguns, a .22 caliber semi-automatic and a 9-mm pistol. Cartridge casings found on the scene revealed both weapons had been used, he added.
The motive for the situation remained unclear according to Skorik, who noted the student was not known to local police. One parent told the Milwauke Journal Sentinel that the situation unfolded during a Western Civilization class.
"We have no idea as far as motivations at this point," he said.
The high school will be closed until further notice and grief counselors will be on hand once the decision is made to re-open, said Superintendent Timothy Baneck.
The district had held a drill last fall to practise what to do if a shooter had entered the school, he added.
Marinette is approximately 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the city of Green Bay. The school has approximately 700 students.
Police had earlier said there were 20 students and one teacher being held hostage.
The youth was hospitalized with a gunshot wound, with no immediate word on his condition, but the captives were unharmed, according to officials in Marinette, Wisconsin, where the drama unfolded Monday.
Marinette police chief Jeff Skorik said earlier reports on social network sites that students had been injured in the attack were incorrect.
Skorik told a late night press conference the student who had held the hostages shot himself as police approached him after officers had heard three gunshots go off in the classroom.
The male gunman, who was not identified, was transported to a local hospital where his condition or the nature of the injuries was not known late Monday.
"Emergency rescue personnel on stand-by treated the suspect and transported him to Bay Area Medical Center," a police statement said.
The drama came to an end at 8:03 pm (0103 GMT Tuesday) moments after the gunman had released five students to allow them to use the washrooms.
After hearing gunfire, officers who had been in dialogue with the teacher, immediately entered the room, and saw the boy shoot himself.
"The officers breached the door, entered the classroom and saw the suspect in front of the classroom," Skorik said. "At that time the suspect fired one shot, injured himself with a self-inflicted gunshot wound." Skorik did not say where he was shot.
The hostage-taker, an unidentified student, entered the classroom toward the end of the school day, around 3:00 pm (2000 GMT).
Police had been hoping to resolve the drama without violence. "The game plan all along was to have the situation end peacefully," Skorik said.
The youth, a student at Marinette High School, had entered the classroom with two handguns, a .22 caliber semi-automatic and a 9-mm pistol. Cartridge casings found on the scene revealed both weapons had been used, he added.
The motive for the situation remained unclear according to Skorik, who noted the student was not known to local police. One parent told the Milwauke Journal Sentinel that the situation unfolded during a Western Civilization class.
"We have no idea as far as motivations at this point," he said.
The high school will be closed until further notice and grief counselors will be on hand once the decision is made to re-open, said Superintendent Timothy Baneck.
The district had held a drill last fall to practise what to do if a shooter had entered the school, he added.
Marinette is approximately 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the city of Green Bay. The school has approximately 700 students.
Police had earlier said there were 20 students and one teacher being held hostage.
Google Investigated by EU Over Online Ads, Search
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union regulators will investigate whether Google Inc. has abused its dominant position in the online search market — the first major probe into the online giant's business practices.
The move announced Tuesday follows complaints from rival search engines that Google put them at a disadvantage in both its regular and sponsored search results, by listing links to their sites below references to its own services in an attempt to shut them out of the market.
The EU Commission will also see whether Google prevented advertising partners from placing ads from competitors on their sites. Competitors allegedly shut out include computer and software vendors, the commission said.
If the Commission finds that Google has abused its market position, the company could be fined up to 10 percent of its revenue — that would put it on the line for a $2.4 billion fine based on 2009 earnings figures.
The Commission has shown resolve in confronting U.S. corporations and only last year concluded a long-running antitrust case involving Microsoft Corp. that lead to over $1 billion of fines.
Three companies — U.K.-based price-comparison site Foundem, French legal search engine ejustice.fr and Microsoft-owned shopping site Ciao — lodged complaints against Google with the commission in February.
The investigation does not imply any wrongdoing by Google, which controls about 90 percent of the online search market in Europe, but shows that the antitrust watchdog is taking the complaints seriously enough to launch an in-depth examination of the company's practices.
Google has maintained it is confident that it hasn't done anything wrong.
"Since we started Google we have worked hard to do the right thing by our users and our industry — ensuring that ads are always clearly marked, making it easy for users and advertisers to take their data with them when they switch services, and investing heavily in open source projects," Google said in an emailed statement.
"But there's always going to be room for improvement, and so we'll be working with the Commission to address any concerns," the company said.
The move announced Tuesday follows complaints from rival search engines that Google put them at a disadvantage in both its regular and sponsored search results, by listing links to their sites below references to its own services in an attempt to shut them out of the market.
The EU Commission will also see whether Google prevented advertising partners from placing ads from competitors on their sites. Competitors allegedly shut out include computer and software vendors, the commission said.
If the Commission finds that Google has abused its market position, the company could be fined up to 10 percent of its revenue — that would put it on the line for a $2.4 billion fine based on 2009 earnings figures.
The Commission has shown resolve in confronting U.S. corporations and only last year concluded a long-running antitrust case involving Microsoft Corp. that lead to over $1 billion of fines.
Three companies — U.K.-based price-comparison site Foundem, French legal search engine ejustice.fr and Microsoft-owned shopping site Ciao — lodged complaints against Google with the commission in February.
The investigation does not imply any wrongdoing by Google, which controls about 90 percent of the online search market in Europe, but shows that the antitrust watchdog is taking the complaints seriously enough to launch an in-depth examination of the company's practices.
Google has maintained it is confident that it hasn't done anything wrong.
"Since we started Google we have worked hard to do the right thing by our users and our industry — ensuring that ads are always clearly marked, making it easy for users and advertisers to take their data with them when they switch services, and investing heavily in open source projects," Google said in an emailed statement.
"But there's always going to be room for improvement, and so we'll be working with the Commission to address any concerns," the company said.
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