ImClone Systems is expected to announce later today that it is continuing talks to sell itself to a major pharmaceutical concern for a price in the range of $6.1 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Activist investor Carl Icahn has been searching for a higher bid.
The biotech company, which last week rejected an unsolicited offer from Bristol-Myers Squibb to acquire it for $5.4 billion, is expected to announce a deadline by which it hopes to have a deal with its other suitor. The two sides remain in “deep discussions” according to the WSJ, and they believe they can reach a solution within the next few days.
ImClone has also expressed interest in exploring possible deals with Pfizer and Eli Lilly.
ImClone chairman Carl Icahn called the revised offer from Bristol from $60-per-share to $62-per-share “absurd.” He mocked Bristol CEO James M. Cornelius for making it.
“If you wish to make your attorneys wealthier, I can show you more productive ways to do so,” Icahn wrote in an open letter. “Or, if you simply want publicity, I can also help you in that regard without your having to make unnecessary expenditures.”