By Robb M. Stewart
Bausch Health shareholders approved the adoption of a poison pill plan aimed at fending off a possible hostile bid.
The pharmaceutical company said investors this week approved the shareholder rights plan taken on by the board in April.
Bausch said the plan was adopted to help ensure that all shareholders are treated fairly and equally in the face of any unsolicited takeover bid or a possible so-called "creeping" takeover, and to ensure the board has the opportunity to solicit and negotiate alternatives to any approach.
It said the rights plan wasn't being adopted in response to any specific proposal or intention to buy control of the Company, and its board isn't aware of any threatened takeover bid.
Activist investor Carl Icahn had tightened his hold on Bausch, amassing an economic interest covering about 34% of its outstanding shares, before the company's board affected the poison pill plan.
Then in August, billionaire John Paulson, Bausch's non-executive chairperson after rejoining the board in mid-2022, through Paulson Capital bought the net long position in Bausch held by Icahn and his affiliates. At the time, that left Paulson with a stake in Bausch of just over 19%, and Carl Icahn's son and a portfolio manager for Icahn's investment firm stepped down from Bausch's board.
Shares of Bausch, which has been working to pay down debt and has a long-held ambition to offload its Bausch + Lomb eyecare subsidiary, have fallen more than 20% so far this year in Toronto and on the New York Stock Exchange.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 09, 2025 08:15 ET (12:15 GMT)
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