Vasella Quitting Wins Cheers From Novartis’s Investors

Novartis AG shareholders, disappointed with the company’s track record on acquisitions, are urging the new chairman to tear up some of the deals Daniel Vasella engineered in almost two decades building Europe’s largest drugmaker.

Yesterday’s announcement that Bayer AG’s Joerg Reinhardt will replace Vasella as chairman of Novartis’s board lifted the shares to a 4 1/2 year high. Novartis under Vasella bought a