Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY)

[chmcnfunds]

Chatter has legs:
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Bristol-Myers probably isn’t getting bought — but it’s not digging in, either

As you might have read on Twitter yesterday, a loosely sourced story claimed the world’s biggest drug makers are kicking the tires on Bristol-Myers Squibb, and it was apparently credible enough to move the stock up more than 3 percent.

These rumors come and go, and the thesis is usually the same: Bristol-Myers, among the smaller members of the Big Pharma club, is more likely to be bought than do the buying. Such reports are always wrong, right up until the second they’re right, so drawing broad conclusions in either direction is always foolish.

But! Here’s an interesting note, courtesy of EvercoreISI analyst Mark Schoenebaum: Bristol-Myers is not at all set up to fight off a takeover.

Unlike most publicly traded companies, Bristol-Myers doesn’t stagger its board seats, meaning all of its directors have to run for re-election each year. And it doesn’t have a poison pill plan, under which the company could dissuade an acquirer by diluting share value.

That means “they’re very shareholder friendly,” Schoenebaum said in an address to investors. “This is not a company that would need to be bullied into doing the right thing. This is a company that would do the right thing, period, if the opportunity existed.”

So there’s that.
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BMY