Roche-Genentech Takeover Will Cost 1,500 Jobs in N.J.; Roche Name to Go

(MoneyWatch)  The Roche takeover of Genentech will cost 1,500 jobs in New Jersey as sales and marketing positions are axed there. R&D staff look more secure, according to the Star-Ledger. The company will also change its name to Genentech.

The move makes a mockery of a press conference staged by Gov. Jon Corzine in August, after Roche began its bid for Genentech, when the governor said:

"Reports of the state's pharma industry withering on the vine couldn't be further from the truth ... New Jersey remains the 'Medicine Chest of the World' with 15 of the world's top 25 pharmaceutical companies either having their U.S. or world headquarters, or major operations, in New Jersey and that includes Roche.

The Star-Ledger reports today:

Roche, which has run its U.S. operations from a campus in Nutley for 80 years, plans to shed more than 1,500 jobs in New Jersey and relocate major operations to California as part of a $46.8 billion deal to take over the biotech powerhouse Genentech ... Most of the 1,500 job cuts will be in commercial operations, largely sales and marketing personnel.

It's a triple whammy for Jersey, which will see jobs cut in the Pfizer-Wyeth merger and the Merck/Schering-Plough hookup. Another interesting nugget:

As part of the deal, Roche's U.S. pharmaceutical business will begin operating under the Genentech name.

That move will vex brand image students. The Genentech name may indicate growth (that's where the strength of the new company now is) but the Roche name, for consumers, has long stood as an old, reliable chemical giant. Giving up that equity in shaky times will have its costs -- most consumers have never heard of Genentech. (Why didn't they call it Genentoche? Or Rochentech? Even "Roche Genentech" would have been snappier than, say, "Bristol-Myers Squibb.")

• BNET's Previous Roche-Genentech Coverage:
• Genentech's Levinson May Have No Change-of-Control Agreement in Roche Deal
• New Roche Offer and Genentech Squeeze-Out Ploy Put Focus on April's Avastin Results
• Roche-Genentech: $16 Billion Raised, Raptiva Off the Market, Stock Market Doesn't Care
• Roche-Genentech: Lack of Deal Is All Goldman Sachs' Fault
• Roche Goes Hostile in Genentech Bid; Still Has No Financing Lined Up
• Roche Begging for $45 Billion It Doesn't Have
• Roche-Genentech Deal: $95 Bid Coming by February
• Could Roche-Genentech Deal Price Actually Be Getting Lower?
• Roche Doesn't Have Enough Money for Genentech Deal
• Roche Genentech Deal Conspicuous By Its Absence
• A Worst-Case Scenario in the Roche-Genentech Deal