Black Thursday Hindsight

ImmunoGen Inc. (NASDAQ:IMGN) couldn't have known that it would price its follow-on on Black Thursday, but its experience on May 6 illustrates why bankers sometimes advise against publicly marketed deals.

The company did get its follow-on priced - but it wasn't pretty. On May 5, after market close, it proposed to sell 8.5 million shares. Based on that day's close of $9.85, it would have raised $83.7 million prior to an overallotment of 1.35 million shares, which would have raised a total of $97 million...