ImClone Receives $70 A Share Buyout Offer, Rejects Bristol-Meyer Offer

September 10, 2008 3:21 p.m. EST

New York, NY (AHN) - ImClone Systems Inc announced Wednesday it received a buyout offer of $70 a share from a large pharmaceutical company. The offer tops Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's offer of $60 a share.

Shares of ImClone jumped 7 percent on the buyout news to $68.15. When Bristol-Myers made their $60 a share offer back on July 30, ImClone shares were trading at $46.44.

The $70 a share offer from the unnamed pharmaceutical company values ImClone at roughly $6.1 billion.

Rumors have already begun to swirl on the identity of the buyer; Merck, Sanofi Aventis and Takeda are all large pharmaceuticals whose names have been mentioned.

ImClone said in a statement they will let the new bidder conduct due-diligence for a two week period.

Carl Icahn, the Chairmen of ImClone's board has preached for several months that the company is worth $80 a share.

The one caveat for any potential buyer is that Bristol-Myers owns a 20 percent stake in ImClone and markets their blockbuster cancer drug, Erbitux in the U.S., where it receives 60 percent of the drug's revenue. This fact naturally made Bristol-Myers the best candidate to buy ImClone, however, they were not willing to pay ImClone's asking price.