Proxy battles are all the rage these days.  On the heels of a major proxy battle between Bill Ackman and Target (TGT) last week (Ackman Missed His Target), the results of the fight between Biogen Idec (BIIB) and Carl Icahn appears to have ended in a draw.  Icahn, a well known activist investor, was trying to get four board members elected to BIIB’s Board of Directors, and after preliminary results were released it appears that two of them were elected in a contentious battle.  Icahn had been busy with a similar attempt to replace members of the Amylin (AMLN) board last week, he succeeded in getting two of his appointees seated as well. 

The two newest directors of Biogen will be Dr. Alexander Denner and Dr. Richard Mulligan, who are the same two that Ichan put on the board during his 2006 proxy fight with ImClone.  ImClone was later sold to Eli Lilly (LLY) for $6.5 billion.  Icahn envisions splitting Biogen and Idec into two companies, but that will likely be difficult with only two likely advocates on the board.

Not everyone was prepared for the fireworks that the Biogen shareholder meeting would produce.  Reportedly, the actual meeting did not disappoint for drama, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“Wednesday’s meeting was marked with unexpected acrimony. The company’s chairman, Bruce Ross, recessed the meeting for more than three hours over shouted objections from Mr. Icahn’s nominees.

In an interview, Mr. Icahn called the delay “despicable.” “What’s wrong with Biogen is, they just run it as a country club,” Mr. Icahn said.