Forest Laboratories FRX today announced that the preliminary report of IVS Associates, the independent inspector of elections for the Company's Annual Meeting, confirms that all ten of Forest's Board nominees were elected by a substantial majority.
Based on the IVS report of the preliminary voting results, the ten Company nominees were elected to the Forest Board of Directors, each receiving more than a majority of all outstanding shares. Over 226 million votes, or approximately 98% of the votes cast in the election, were voted for each of the six Forest nominees that had not been contested. With regard to the four contested seats, the Forest nominees were elected by wide margins. Mr. Goodman and Mr. Solomon received over 169 million and 165 million votes, respectively, and Messrs. Goldwasser and Salans each received over 152 million votes for their election.
According to the inspector's report, Icahn nominee Richard Mulligan received only 70.5 million votes in support of his election and Alex Denner, the Icahn candidate with the second highest total, received less than 49 million votes. Therefore, the margin of victory for the contested Forest nominees was 81 million votes with respect to Mr. Mulligan and 103 million votes with respect to Mr. Denner. Messrs. Bebchuk and Ende received only 42.1 million and 33.5 million votes in favor of their election, respectively. As of the 2011 Annual Meeting record date, the Icahn group held approximately 19.9 million Forest shares.
The inspector's preliminary report also indicates that Forest shareholders approved the advisory vote on executive compensation, supported an annual frequency for the advisory vote on executive compensation, and ratified the appointment of BDO USA, LLP as the Company's independent registered public accountant.
Howard Solomon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Forest, said, “We are pleased to receive this positive news confirming the results of our ten nominees today as we launch Dailresp and Viibryd with our field sales organization. This is an important week as we move forward with two of the ‘Next Nine' products in our late-stage pipeline. We expect these high-potential products to help drive growth and diversify revenues in the years ahead.”
Based on the inspector's preliminary report, shareholders representing more than 231 million shares, or 83.1% of the Company's issued and outstanding common stock as of the record date, either voted by proxy or in person at the meeting. The preliminary vote count is subject to review, challenge and official certification, but is not expected to change materially, if at all.
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