market folly

Activist investor Carl Icahn today in a statement revealed he has taken a position in Allergan (AGN).  On his website, he writes:

"We have recently acquired a large position in Allergan and are very supportive of CEO Brent Saunders. We were instrumental in bringing Brent on board as the new CEO of Forest Labs a few years ago and worked cooperatively and constructively with him to help increase value for all Forest shareholders. Less than a year later Forest was acquired by Actavis (which subsequently merged with Allergan) resulting in massive gains for Forest shareholders. While we at that time disposed of our position in Forest, we still have always maintained great respect for Brent. We have every confidence in Brent’s ability to enhance value for all Allergan shareholders."

As our brand new Hedge Fund Wisdom issue detailed last week, AGN is a crowded hedge fund trade.  The company's merger with Pfizer (PFE) was called off after the US government implemented anti-inversion rules.  AGN has now basically become a capital deployment optionality story.