Biogen shares deflate as it gives up on sale

There was no "about face" here. BiogenIdec said they would explore buyouts, and then they found no offers they liked and so stopped exploring. What is the contradiction?

Further, it is stupid to describe a bunch of swing-traders dumping stock and driving the stock down as "punishing" the company. A better description would be "victimizing" or "mugging." Why should a company's market cap go down, and it get harder for a company to borrow money and do business, because they made a good decision and a bunch of vultures panic?

Sheesh, I am tired of so much short term focus on stock prices, even from decent journalists. It distorts the real world for the vast majority of us who are not day traders -- but more importantly, it is getting to the point where it distorts the actual businesses that issued the stocks. And even hurts collaborators like Elan. Talk about the tail wagging the dog! Not sane.

No wonder companies are going private whenever they can. Not just because of Sarbanes-Oxley, but idiot "journalists," and idiot "investors."

The moment Biogen Idec put out a report saying that the company was studying its "strategic alternatives," it was in play, and you didn't need to be a day trader to know or for that matter care. The news sent the stock price rocketing up, got everyone whipped up about the company and Elan's shot at Tysabri, and became a quick example of how hot biotech was. When Biogen Idec decided to tear up the 'for sale' sign after being unable to come up with the kind of deal it wanted, a corporate retreat if I've ever seen one, that also sent a message about biotech companies and values. If you don't think values or stock prices matter in drug discovery, you're living in a dream world. Yes, short-term perspectives do hurt companies' long-range planning and journalists love a big headline. Perhaps Biogen Idec should have pondered that before it started the ball rolling.

Thanks for the dialog.

You act as though Biogen acted in a vaccuum; it did not.

You recall that BiogenIdec said they were exploring deals in response to Icahn's move to "buy" BiogenIdec. You are management -- what do you do, to keep control of the situation and not let idiot stock-price watchers drive your company to do something crazy?

You announce that you will look for a buyer. Totally rational. If Icahn is right, everybody wins, and if he is not right, YOU get to make the decision to remain independent. You make it public knowledge -- so people would know there was no need to pile on behind Icahn to do something drastic. You look, and it turns out that you find no good deals -- and announce that. You take a beating from some idiots, but now Icahn and his ilk can go jump in a lake, and the you can get back to real business. I think that was masterfully done!