Monday, December 1, 2014

Fried Frank Bigwig: Ackman's Pershing Square/Valeant Takeover Model Is Probably Dead

The Valuewalk post is a bit confusing, attributing the linked Harvard Law School blog post to Arthur Fleischer Jr while the post itself says it came from another Fried Frank partner, Philip Richter.
Either way these are the kind of bigs for whom the wigs used to be made.
(yeah, yeah, I know it wasn't just the Esq.'s wearing the wigs) 

From ValueWalk:

Law Professor Says Valeant / Ackman Model For Acquisitions Is Dead 
The much discussed Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) (TSE:VRX) / Pershing Square model for bidder / activist collaboration is dead, according to an article posted on the Harvard University Law School blog.

The article, penned by Arthur Fleischer Jr., a guest contributor on the Harvard Law School’s Corporate Governance and Financial regulation blog, an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University and a senior counsel at the law firm of Fried Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, wrote an apparent obituary for the controversial, some said illegal, practice.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals’ failed pursuit of Allergan
Noting that the distinguishing feature of Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) (TSE:VRX)’s “now-failed pursuit of Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN)” was the one of a kind bidder-activist collaboration that was widely questioned inside corporate, legal and regulatory circles, Fleischer predicts the model Valeant and Pershing Square used in their attempt to acquire Allergan “probably will not be generally followed.”

The key issue appears to be the illegality....MORE
Yeah, that'll do it.

Here's The Future of the Bidder-Activist Collaboration Model
at the HLS Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation,