Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Merck & Co. Chief Executive Officer Richard T. Clark said he plans to keep Schering-Plough Corp.’s headquarters after completing the acquisition of the company.

The Schering-Plough headquarters in Kenilworth, New Jersey, as well as Merck’s research operations in Rahway, New Jersey, will “continue to be important sites” for the combined company, Clark said. Clark is evaluating what employees and facilities to keep and said he doesn’t have a timeline for those decisions.

Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, completed its acquisition of Schering-Plough yesterday and began combined operations today. The deal, valued at about $47 billion, will expand Merck’s pipeline of experimental medicine, increase its business outside the U.S. and widen its sales of animal and over-the-counter medicines. Clark hosted a live video conference today with the more than 100,000 employees worldwide of Merck and Schering-Plough to help integrate the two businesses.

“You can see the numbers on paper, but when you actually see the tens of thousands of employees virtually live it was amazing,” Clark said today in a telephone interview. “We had a great day one.”

Earnings for the combined company, excluding some costs, will increase at a “high single-digit” rate each year through 2013, Merck said today in a statement. The company also expects cost savings of at least $3.5 billion annually after 2011 to come from all areas across the combined company.

Merck has said it will cut 15 percent, or about 15,000 jobs, following the acquisition.

Deal Premium

Under the deal, each Schering-Plough shareholder received 0.5767 Merck shares, which closed at $30.67 yesterday, and $10.50 in cash for a total value of $28.19 per share. That is a 60 percent premium over Schering-Plough’s closing share price the day before the deal was announced March 9.

About half of Merck’s revenue will come from outside the U.S., following the deal. Merck got 44 percent of its revenue in the first nine months of the year from overseas.

Schering-Plough gives Merck drugs in late-stage testing that may top $6 billion in annual sales. The deal will double the number of medicines Merck has in the final stages of human tests.

The company will trade under the name Merck in the U.S. and Canada, and be called MSD elsewhere.

Merck rose $1.97, or 6.4 percent, to $32.64 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. That was its biggest gain in nearly eight months. Merck has risen 7.4 percent during 2009.

To contact the reporters on this story: Shannon Pettypiece in New York at spettypiece@bloomberg.net; Elizabeth Lopatto in New York at elopatto@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 4, 2009 16:21 EST