Icahn to BMS: Your $62 hostile bid is 'absurd'

The letters being exchanged between ImClone Chairman Carl Icahn and Bristol-Myers Squibb CEO Jim Cornelius are taking on a sharp edge. Razor sharp. Icahn's letter in response to BMS' hostile $62-per-share bid labels the offer "absurd." He also says that Cornelius has been, ahem, misleading.

And then he gets nasty.

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

Maybe next time Icahn sits down to add to the correspondence he will become more insulting--perhaps offering to let the chairman of the mystery "large pharma" company that he says has offered $70 a share beat up BMS's chairman. In the meantime, it appears that BMS and ImClone are still far apart on any possible acquisition.

- read the ImClone release and letter
- read the report in the Wall Street Journal

Related Articles:
BMS may just "walk away" from ImClone proposal
Icahn and Cornelius trade notes, barbs
Icahn's mystery buyer could spark bidding war
ImClone rejects BMS, gets higher bid
Analysts: BMS lowballing ImClone
ImClone plays hard to get, considers spin-off