Dan Loeb continues his reign as one of the most successful activist investors. PDL BioPharma (NASDAQ: PDLI) has agreed to put itself up for sale, just one month after the company insisted it would pursue a stand-alone course. Shares rallied on the news.
TheDeal.com has a good summary of Loeb's battle with PDL, but these are some of my favorite snippets from Loeb's 13-D letters to the company's executives and directors. Every public battle that Loeb launches with a public company culminates in a "greatest hits" collection containing Loeb's best barbs directed at the company's brass:
... it is critical that you, the non-management directors, exercise your fiduciary duty and finally take action: terminate Mr. McDade before he is allowed to destroy shareholder value at our Company for even one more day. [ -- a request that was fulfilled with McDade's resignation.]
Mr. McDade's record of incompetence, egregiously bad business judgment and serious ethical lapses has been well documented by one of PDL's founders, numerous current and former employees, as well as by Third Point.
Mr. McDade lacks the ability to communicate with the investment community effectively in part because he has a poor understanding of even basic financial concepts...
For an interesting analysis of Dan Loeb as a poet, check out this piece from DealBreaker.
PDL BioPharma: Another big win for Dan Loeb
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