Wednesday, April 25, 2007

MedImmune - the Icahn factor: an offer you can't refuse


The game at MedImmune was over on Valentine's Day, we can now see, when Carl C. Icahn disclosed that he had bought stock in the Gaithersburg biotech company worth $89.8 million.

He didn't threaten a proxy fight against MedImmune until March, he later told The Washington Post, but he hardly needed to.

Mere news that Icahn has taken a stake in your company delivers as message as obvious as a severed horse's head: Place all or part of your company up for sale, or prepare for war.

On Monday, MedImmune agreed to sell itself to AstraZeneca for twice its stock market value from a few months earlier.

Profit for Icahn: $71 million.

More from Jay Hancock
PS Buy the horse's head pillow here.

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