Amylin v. Eastbourne Slideshow Battle; It's All About the Stock Price
Amylin and Eastbourne Capital, locked in a fight for control of Amylin’s board of directors, have escalated their war in the only way that beancounters know how: duelling presentations.
You can see Amylin’s here and a summary of Eastbourne’s here.
Eastbourne has kept it simple: It’s all about the stock price:
Amylin’s shares have fallen over 75%, from a peak of $51.43 in 2007 to $11.58 on May 4, 2009, a loss of approximately $5 billion of shareholder value.
Rick Barry, Eastbourne’s founder, also gets in a dig at Amylin’s sudden U-turn on the size of its sales force:
We are also struck by the timing of the apparent realization by Amylin’s management, reflected in the company’s just announced “New Sales Approach,” that the company’s cost structure needs to be addressed, coming as it does less than a year after moving to increase the company’s sales force by 15%.”
Amylin’s presentation is titled “Positioned for value creation” — not the best moniker as it implicitly admits that Amylin has not yet created any value. (Indeed, the company has not made any profit in the last five years.) The rest of it is long and detailed and will doubtless have them snoozing in conference rooms across the country.
Interestingly, Amylin wants the current board retained for the same reason that Icahn and Eastbourne want it removed — because Icahn wants to do to Amylin what he did to ImClone (dress it up and sell it at a premium). Amylin says Eastbourne et al are:
Fundamentally motivated to alter the business strategy using a “cookie cutter” approach which is not relevant to value creation.
Do not have relevant expertise to drive value creation for shareholders.
If you look at Icahn’s presentation, it turns out that’s exactly why he wants Amylin’s board to change:
Our nominees helped deliver results at ImClone
… We believe ImClone and Amylin situations analagous
*Correction: An earlier version of this item contained some incorrect information about the financing of a new Amylin facility in Ohio. BNET regrets the error.
- See previous coverage of Amylin:
- In U-Turn, Amylin Lays Off 200; Move Validates Icahn’s Arguments
- Amylin Trial Testimony: Debt Not Structured With Interest or Principal Payments in Mind
- The War for Amylin: Lilly Not Interested; Icahn Calls the Company a “Dictatorship”
- Amylin CEO Got 11% Pay Rise Despite Losses; Company Paid $355K for Lawyer to Move House
- Amylin Q1: “Icahn Doesn’t Know Who Our CEO Is”
- In War for Amylin, Icahn and Eastbourne Win a Battle: “Poison Pill” Revoked
- Amylin Founder Resigns, Suggests Chairman Follow; Icahn and Eastbourne Likely Delighted
- Inside Amylin’s Anti-Icahn Suicide Pact
- Amylin Battle Heats Up as Eastbourne Capital Touts Rival Directors’ Slate to Icahn’s
- Icahn Moves on Amylin; Will Lilly Step Up?
- Behind the Byetta Crisis: Is This Drug Really All That and a Bag of (Fat-Free) Chips?
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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