ImClone mulls $70 share offer
Carl Icahn has been in talks with an unidentified pharmaceutical company that made the offer; ImClone rejects $60 offer from Bristol-Myers.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Biotechnology company ImClone Systems Inc. said Tuesday it is considering a buyout offer worth $70 per share from an unidentified large pharmaceutical company, and rejected a $60-per-share bid from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
ImClone (IMCL) said Chairman Carl Icahn has been in talks with the chief executive of the pharmaceutical company that made the new offer. ImClone's board will allow the potential buyer two weeks to do due diligence. ImClone said it has not decided if the offer is adequate.
The new offer would be a premium of 10% to ImClone's Tuesday closing price of $63.65. In morning trading, ImClone stock jumped $4.85, or 7.6%, to $68.50.
ImClone also formally rejected the $4.5 billion offer made July 31 by Bristol-Myers (BMY, Fortune 500), its partner in selling the colon- and head-and-neck cancer drug Erbitux. ImClone said in August that the Bristol-Myers offer undervalued the company, but it did not officially reject the bid. Billionaire investor Icahn was said to be opposed to the Bristol-Myers offer.
The offer was a 29.2% premium to ImClone's July 30 closing price, but the stock has traded above $60 since that time, indicating investors expected a higher sale price.
Bristol-Myers Squibb declined to comment. 
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