BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

Ebb & Flow

February 13, 2006 8:00 AM UTC

When OSI (OSIP) announced plans to buy Eyetech last year, angry shareholders took their pound of flesh by immediately driving the stock price down 22%. Their gripe was that they didn't think OSIP was buying a good asset in Eyetech's Macugen, a drug for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) that is facing impending competition from Lucentis from Genentech(DNA).

The other shareholder gripe was that the deal was not subject to a vote. OSIP funded 75% of the takeout with cash, and deals that dilute shareholders by less than 20% are not subject to shareholder approval (see BioCentury, Aug. 29, 2005). ...