Bristol-Myers Squibb Co’s top shareholder, Wellington Management, on Wednesday said that it does not support the US drugmaker’s US$74 billion purchase of biotech Celgene Corp, imperiling what would be the largest pharmaceutical company takeover of all time.
Wellington Management, which owns about 8 percent of Bristol-Myers shares, said that it believes the deal is too risky and too expensive, and that alternatives to create value for shareholders “could be more attractive.”
Celgene shares fell 8.5 percent after the Wellington statement was released, while Bristol-Myers shares rose 3 percent.
Photo: Reuters
Bristol-Myers in January said that it would buy New Jersey-based Celgene, combining two of the world’s largest cancer therapy businesses, with Bristol acquiring Celgene’s Revlimid, one of the world’s top-selling blood cancer drugs.
Bristol-Myers said in a statement that its board and management have had “numerous conversations and meetings” with investors, including Wellington, since announcing the Celgene deal.
“We believe that we are acquiring Celgene at an attractive price, and that this transaction presents an important and unique opportunity to create sustainable value,” Bristol-Myers said.
Celgene declined to comment.
Boston-based Wellington Management rarely makes its views public, which has suggested to analysts that Wednesday’s statement against the proposed deal is both highly unusual and noteworthy.
In addition to its concerns about the price, the Wellington statement said successful execution of the deal could be more difficult to achieve than depicted by company management.
Following Wellington’s announcement, the spread between Celgene’s share price and the value of Bristol’s bid for Celgene nearly doubled in after-the-bell trading to about 20 percent, indicating increased skepticism that the deal will get done.
The Wellington statement came a week after Bristol-Myers said that activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP intends to nominate five directors to the Bristol-Myers board.
Reports last month said that Starboard was working with a proxy solicitor to gauge the level of support among Bristol-Myers shareholders for the Celgene deal.
If it finds enough discontent, Starboard could agitate against it.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”