According to The Wall Street Journal reports, Activist Investor Starboard Value has taken a $1 billion stake in Pfizer and wants the US giant drugmaker to improve its performance.
As of Friday reports, Pfizer had a market value of about $162 billion. But in the Covid-19 pandemic era, the sales shrunk and the market value dropped 13% in the past year (2021). Fortunately, there is little upliftment of 2% to $29.20 in shares of drugs reported on Monday premarket trading.
Therefore, Starboard has approached two former executives to enhance the company’s performance and both show interest in helping Starboard. Ian Read, a former Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer from 2010 to 2018, and Frank D’Amelio, a former Chief Financial Officer from 2007 to 2001 supported Activist Investor to increase Pfizer revenue.
“We await future developments, but we do not see low-hanging fruit to boost shareholder value,” Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger wrote in a research note.
However, the current CEO, Albert Bourla is under pressure to serve the right investors in the company and search for related products that make Pfizer overestimated for future demands.
Bourla has spent $70 billion in order to acquire products that have grown revenue since 2020.
“We are progressing on all cylinders,” Bourla told The Wall Street Journal in July.
“Pfizer bought Seagen for $43 billion, Biohaven for $13 billion, Arena for $6 billion, Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT) for $5 billion and Trillium for $2 billion.”
Starboard led by Jeff Smith has also spent Salesforce and Autodesk to buy rival Celgene. In 2019, Starboard also won seats in the healthcare technology company Cerner.
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