ImClone rejects bid from Bristol-Myers Squib

NEW YORK Biotech ImClone has rejected an acquisition bid by Bristol-Myers Squibb, according to a letter that ImClone chairman Carl Icahn sent to Bristol chairman and chief executive officer James Cornelius Tuesday, calling the bid “absurd.”

On Monday, Bristol announced that it would increase its $60-per-share bid for the biotech to $62 a share, though this still fell short of the $70-per-share offer that ImClone has received from a thus-far undisclosed pharmaceutical company.

“Your letter of yesterday contains inaccuracies which are misleading to our shareholders,” Icahn wrote. “Your statements that there have not been any meaningful discussions concerning your proposal have no basis in fact. … I also told you a large Pharma company had offered $70 subject to due diligence and the diligence will be over on Sunday, September 28, 2008. In light of these facts, your hostile tender of $62, at this time, seems absurd.”

At the end of the letter, Icahn didn’t mince words.

“If you wish to make your attorneys wealthier, I can show you more productive ways to do so,” he wrote. “Or, if you simply want publicity, I can also help you in that regard without your having to make unnecessary expenditures.”