Genzyme to Make Tender Offer for AnorMed
Genzyme to Make Offer for AnorMed - New York Times describes Genzyme’s attempt to make an unsolicited (i.e. hostile) tender offer for all outstanding shares in Candian biotech Anormed, developers of Mozobil. Regular readers will recall my detailed account of the recent overthrow of AnorMed’s CEO and board by Baker Brothers, a hedge fund. In that account I noted that the larger lesson was that should hedge funds increasingly play an active role in biotech financing, expect them to play an active role in biotech management.
In the case of AnorMed, it appears that AnorMed received an “unsolicited” offer from Genzyme to buy out shares of the company. Seems kind of coincidental that just a few months after the board shake up an offer to acquire the company comes in, huh? Look…I’m not going to speculate as to what occurred behind the scenes. I’ll just say that when you have hedge (or private equity) fund managers controlling your board, you can expect big changes to occur in the company’s ownership. Biotech hasn’t historically had to contend with this reality. Welcome to the jungle.
