Thanks for sharing. I pasted the article below so others could see. The CEO acted in the best interests of shareholders. Let's hope Karim does the same and does not get greedy like the former CEO.
You could see something like that happening with us to get the stock price out of the $5s.....leak of a potential deal....I imagine we would start moving up quickly.
Inside the deal: As leaked details goosed its stock, Acceleron's CEO pumped Merck for more cash
Kyle Blankenship
Managing Editor
As leaked details of its potential merger with Merck were splashed across the internet, Acceleron behind the scenes used newfound interest from investors and a last-minute Hail Mary from an unnamed suitor to ply the drug giant for an even more pricey buyout, according to a play-by-play of the deal in an SEC filing.
After weeks of negotiation, Merck late last month agreed to acquire Acceleron and its lead rare cardiovascular disease drug sotatercept for $11.5 billion, confirming days of leaked details on the companies’ negotiations.
Those earliest reports began swirling on Sept. 24, the day Bloomberg published an article announcing Acceleron was in “advanced talks” for a buyout. The Wall Street Journal followed that news up days later with a report confirming Merck as the top bidder in those negotiations.
Rob Davis
On the heels of that reporting — and as the company’s stock was ticking up — Acceleron CEO Habib Dable reached out to Merck CEO Rob Davis on Sept. 28 to talk about “the market reaction to rumors regarding the proposed transaction,” according to Merck’s version of events, and asked Merck to up its offer of $180 per share. Davis declined to move on the price, and the partners signed the paperwork the following day.
It’s an odd bit of gamesmanship on Acceleron’s part and paints a picture that Acceleron looked to leverage leaked information to drive up its share price in anticipation of a deal. But in Acceleron’s telling of the story, a last-minute push from another potential partner could have perked the biotech’s ears on a potential bidding war. On Sept. 24, that suitor — dubbed “Party B” in the filing — reached out to Acceleron to express its interest in a buyout and discuss terms.
But just days later, on Sept. 28, the same day Dable asked Merck to up its offer, Party B backed out of the race, saying it “could not be competitive with the price that was speculated in the market and was unwilling to make the regulatory clearance commitment the Company’s financial advisors had indicated would be required,” Acceleron said.
That left Acceleron with Merck, a company with a new CEO and CSO looking to make a splash. Sotatercept could prove just the ticket as a potential blockbuster in the making with winning Phase II data in pulmonary arterial hypertension, or PAH, a rare CV disease.
Sunil Patel
Merck initially reached out to Acceleron in July to inquire about potential partnerships, but Dable made clear early that Acceleron wasn’t interested in out-licensing deals. Sunil Patel, Merck’s head of corporate development, locked down a meeting on July 19 during which he notified Acceleron that Merck planned to submit an offer of $160 per share to buy the biotech outright.
There was only one other company in the mix — “Party A,” or Bristol Myers Squibb. Bristol Myers turned down discussions on an acquisition but did propose another arrangement with Acceleron, which it partnered with on both sotatercept and anemia drug Reblozyl. The drug giant offered to waive all royalty rights Acceleron would owe if sotatercept was approved in return for waiving its own royalty rights to Reblozyl sales.
Acceleron mulled the offer over before determining “that the proposal, taking into account the significant tax obligation it would create, would not deliver value to the Company, increased the risk profile of the Company by reducing the diversification of its revenue opportunities and was not in the best interests of stockholders.”
AI
