A PA pension fund has sued Cephalon in Delaware court saying its management has refused to consider Valeant's $5.7 B offer for the company and therefore Cephalon senior managers are NOT acting in the best interests of the shareholders.
Cephalon's board say they are meeting next week to consider the Valeant offer now that the latter has gone hostile and taken the offer directly to shareholders. The pension fund wants the court to force the Cepahlon to consider the offer and to bar it from enacting poison pill defenses -- some observers view the two recent acquisitions pulled off by Cephalon as examples of that -- particularly the Gemin X acquisition for an earlier stage drug.
Valeant CEO Michael Pearson is now saying that if Cephalon lets his management team to the bargaining table, they might just be willing to increase their $73 per share ($5.7 B) offer that again some analysts thought was bargain basement. Speed in doing this would appear to be of the essence if Cephalon wishes to cash in on this offer.
Posted by Bruce Lehr April 1st 2011.
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