Friday, February 6, 2009

Icahn back after Biogen board seats

By Mass High Tech staff

Billionaire shareholder Carl Icahn is back to attempt a change in the structure of the board of Biogen Idec Inc., after failing to do so last summer.

According to Cambridge-based Biogen (Nasdaq: BIIB), the company received notice from Icahn Partners LP and some affiliates of four nominations to Biogen Idec’s board of directors, including Alexander J. Denner, Richard C. Mulligan, Thomas J. Deuel and David Sidransky, at the company’s 2009 annual meeting.

Icahn Partners is also asking the board to change Biogen’s jurisdiction of incorporation to North Dakota and to amend its bylaws to allow for a board membership of 13. Biogen said in the release that it “will review the notice and consider it in light of the best interests of all shareholders of the company.”

In June, Icahn lost a proxy battle with the biotech powerhouse’s board. At that time he had tried to seat three board members, but shareholders chose Biogen’s nominees for the board seats.

Icahn has criticized Biogen executives on how they handled the company’s failed process to sell the company in late 2007. Specifically, Icahn, who had advocated for the sale, contends that the company’s leadership sabotaged the sales process by denying prospective buyers the ability to talk to Biogen’s corporate partners before making a bid to acquire the company.

With 4,300 workers worldwide, Biogen reported 2007 net income of $638.2 million on revenue of $3.2 billion. The company’s products include Avonex and Tysabri for certain cases of multiple sclerosis and Rituxan for a type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, or cancer of the white blood cells.