An activist tried to take on Pfizer. Then things got messy

Behind the Money

Topher Forhecz

Markets, Investing, News, Banking, Finance, Business, Business News, Crypto

4.4 • 350 Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2024

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Activist investors tend to rely on an element of surprise to catch their target company off guard: quietly building up a stake and swooping in with a slide deck full of strategic changes at just the right moment. That’s not what happened at the beginning of a recent campaign led by the hedge fund Starboard Value against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The FT’s Oliver Barnes, US pharmaceutical and biotech correspondent, and Maria Heeter, US deals correspondent, examine what went awry and what happens next.

Clips from CBS, ABC, CNBC, NBC

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For further reading:

Starboard plotted a campaign against Pfizer’s chief. Then a blank email dropped in his inbox

Why Pfizer sorely needs the activist treatment

Starboard-Pfizer battle strains Guggenheim’s relationship with drugmaker

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On X, follow Oliver Barnes (@mroliverbarnes), Maria Heeter (@HeeterMaria) and Michela Tindera (@mtindera07), or follow Michela on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.

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Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Transcript

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1:09.0	It's Sunday October 6th.
1:11.0	Pharmaceutical business, Pfizer, is about to host a board off-site in
1:15.4	Ireland and the company CEO Albert Borla is getting ready for it. While he's
1:21.6	doing that he opens his email.
	...

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