Don't you love the he-said, he-said games that attend most proxy fights? Yesterday, Amylin's lead outside director saw a letter to Carl Icahn come to light, in which Wilson accused Icahn of trying to engineer a sale to Eli Lilly. Icahn also intends to slash Amylin's budget by 30 percent if he gets control of the company, Wilson wrote. Icahn fired back, saying Wilson's letter "completely misstated and mischaracterized conversations" among Icahn, Wilson and Amylin Chair Joseph Cook.
Icahn didn't deny that he was mulling a sale to Lilly or that he'd been tinkering with cost-cutting ideas. But Lilly CFO Derica Rice told Bloomberg TV that the company hasn't had acquisition talks with Amylin. Rice reiterated a spokesman's earlier pledge that Lilly is "very happy with our current relationship with Amylin."
Where does this leave Amylin? Still mired in said proxy fight, or fights, if you consider Icahn's nomination of new directions and Eastbourne Capital's slate two separate proxy battles. Given the characters involved, we're likely to see more verbal and written wrestling before it's over.
- read the WSJ Health Blog post
- check out the Bloomberg article