Premarket Movers｜Verona Soars 18% As Merck Nears $10B Deal for Company; AES Jumps 10% As It Explores Options Amid Takeover Interest

Wolfspeed rose 3% in premarket trading on Wednesday after jumping 9% on Tuesday.

AI stocks rose in premarket trading. SoundHound AI, BigBear.ai rose 3%; Tempus AI, C3.ai up 1%.

Verona Pharma plc stock soared 18% in premarket trading on Wednesday.

U.S. drugmaker Merck is nearing a deal worth about $10 billion to buy Verona Pharma , a company focused on therapies for lung diseases, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

Merck will pay $107 per American depository share for Verona, the report said, citing three people familiar with the matter. It would be Merck's largest takeover since 2023.

Shares of AES Corp jumped 10% in premarket trading on Wednesday.

AES Corp, which provides renewable power to tech giants such as Microsoft, is exploring options including a potential sale amid takeover interest, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Infrastructure investors including Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. and BlackRock Inc.’s Global Infrastructure Partners unit have been studying AES after the company’s shares lost about half their value over the past two years, the people said. With an enterprise value of about $40 billion, a leveraged buyout of Arlington, Virginia-based AES would still rank among the biggest of all time.

AES owns a fleet of renewable power assets, including wind and solar, as well as two utilities in Indiana and Ohio. The company aims to provide renewable power to data center companies and has signed deals with technology customers including Google, Microsoft and Amazon.com Inc.