Carl Icahn, embroiled in a proxy battle with Biogen Idec, offered to pay as much as $15 billion last year for the company, the largest maker of drugs for multiple sclerosis.
Biogen received the offer of as much as $82 a share in cash in an October 2007 letter from a bidder identified only as "Icarus", according to filings in a Delaware Chancery Court lawsuit. Icarus was a codename for Icahn, Biogen spokeswoman Naomi Aoki said.
In the biggest biotechnology deal of 2007, Icahn pushed MedImmune Inc. to sell itself to London-based AstraZeneca Plc for $15.2 billion.
Based on the 75 per cent premium paid in that transaction, the biggest biotechnology sale of the year, Icahn's involvement might spur an offer as high as $85 to $100 a share for Biogen, said analyst Geoffrey Porges of Sanford Bernstein & Co. in New York.
"Acquisition rumors have kept Biogen stock elevated since mid-summer,'' Porges said in an October note to clients. Potential buyers could include Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis SA, he said.
Biogen first announced Icahn's offer, though not the price he might pay, in October. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company also said there were other interested buyers without naming the bidders involved.
"We don't want people thinking there was another $82 offer when there wasn't," Ms Aoki said in a phone interview yesterday.
Agencies