Forest fires final salvos before Icahn showdown

Forest Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:FRX) made two announcements ahead of Thursday's annual meeting, including a $350 million share buyback and continued recommendations to elect the company's slate of directors. Forest is gearing up for a challenge from activist investor Carl Icahn, who has proposed a slate of four directors for election at the meeting.

Forest agreed to repurchase the shares from shareholder Morgan Stanley by Sept. 30, 2012. Based on Forest's Monday close of $34.49, the repurchase would include about 10 million shares. The actual number of shares will be determined by the discounted volume-weighted average price of the stock during the term of the agreement with Morgan Stanley. Forest said the deal is part of last year's 50 million share repurchase program, under which there are 27 million shares remaining for repurchase as of June 30 (see BioCentury, Aug. 15). ...