Icahn sues Amylin in hopes a proxy fight will trigger sale

Posted under Amylin pharmaceuticals, Blog, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Carl Icahn, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, Genzyme, ImClone, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Startups, Universities, Videos by john

Carl Icahn is turning up the heat on Amylin Pharmaceuticals' board of directors. He filed suit against Amylin ($AMLN), claiming that because the company never told investors about Bristol-Myers Squibb's ($BMY) $22 a share offer to buy the company, the company shouldn't be allowed to enforce a rule requiring advance notice of new candidates for the board--opening the door to a bloody proxy fight.

The lawsuit, filed in Delaware, claims that Amylin "rejected a request to reopen the time for stockholders to provide notice" of new nominations to the board. Amylin's deadline for nominations to the board was set for Jan. 25, which came after the BMS offer but long before the takeover attempt was revealed. 

Amylin swiftly rejected the claim, saying it was "without merit." Icahn owns 9% of Amylin's shares.

Icahn's strategy is familiar to anyone who has watched him push for the acquisition of ImClone or Genzyme, or new management at Biogen Idec ($BIIB). Once the offer was reported, he charged that Amylin's management was "dysfunctional." A proxy fight could expand his representation on the board and lead to a buyout, offering him another windfall to add to the fortune he's already made in the industry. And investors, who quickly bid up Amylin's stock past BMS' offer, are clearly hopeful of seeing the price go higher.

"Amylin is at a crossroads--it can be sold, now, at a significant premium, or it can continue to attempt to market its products, which may be lucrative if successful, but which entails substantial risk," Icahn's suit claims. "Stockholders of Amylin should be given the choice."

- here's the story from The Wall Street Journal
- get the story from Bloomberg
- read the report from Reuters

Related Articles:
Icahn goes in for the kill at Amylin
Icahn pushes Amylin board to open up for sale
Bristol stays in hunt for Amylin
Is an Amylin takeover inevitable after the BMS rejection?

Can Denner’s new hedge fund replicate Icahn’s golden biotech touch?

Posted under Biogen Idec, Blog, Carl Icahn, Companies, Diagnostics, Eli Lilly, Funding, Genzyme, ImClone, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi, Startups, Universities, Videos by John Carroll

After reportedly adding $2 billion to Carl Icahn's treasure chest, Alex Denner is now off on his own, setting up a new hedge fund that presumably will set out to follow the same biotech blueprint that has worked so well in the past.

The game plan: Buy into a company experiencing some major turbulence and then try to seize control of the board to push through a restructuring, if not a sale. Then cash in on the big jump in the share price. And today Bloomberg is helping to burnish Denner's image in the industry with a laudatory profile on the high-profile predator's hands-on experience in drug development.

Denner has plenty of investment successes to boast about. He succeeded at ImClone, where he headed an executive committee that steered the troubled company to a $6.5 billion buyout with Lilly ($LLY). And after joining Icahn's team he did even better with the Biogen Idec ($BIIB) turnaround and Genzyme's $20 billion sale to Sanofi ($SNY).

"Alex actually understands the science--and how to build that into a business," ex-con and ImClone founder Sam Waksal tells Bloomberg. "When a company is broken, he knows what should be done to fix it."

This morning the main question on many investors' minds is likely to be which "broken" biotech Denner will focus on first.

- here's the article from Bloomberg

Related Articles:
Icahn biotech whiz Denner jumps ship after 5 turbulent years
Icahn makes fresh inroads at Biogen and Genzyme
Biogen's Scangos earns Icahn's (rare) blessing