Amylin Gets Carl Icahn Off Its Neck! (AMLN, IEP)

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMLN) is supposed to be getting a takeover offer soon, or at least it is expected to receive or disclose several possible bids soon.  Now the company has one more bit of good news to count on.  It has gotten billionaire and activist investor Carl Icahn to voluntarily dismiss a lawsuit that he brought on his behalf and on behalf of Icahn affiliates.

The lawsuit was seeking an extension of the deadline to nominate directors at the 2012 annual meeting of shareholders.  The news may include Icahn Enterprises, L.P. (NASDAQ: IEP) as well.

Icahn said, “The decision to discontinue our lawsuit seeking to extend the director nomination deadline was the result of discussions I had with Daniel Bradbury, Amylin’s chief executive officer, that we agreed would not be publicly disclosed.”

What is interesting is that this is in the middle of a bidding process.  This drives up the price of poker or it at least takes away one more hurdle that a would-be buyer might have had.  It is unlikely that any buyer would have not bid just because Carl Icahn was involved.  After all, everyone knows that Carl Icahn cares about three real goals here: getting a good price, getting a good price, and ultimately on getting a good price.

The note also said, “Mr. Icahn reiterated that he continues to strongly believe that the company should be sold at this time.”  Duh!

Amylin shares are up 3.5% at $26.45 and today is a new 52-week high against a prior range of $8.03 to $26.25.

JON C. OGG