Ask and ye shall receive - ImClone chairman resigns

Carl Icahn probably didn't reach and retain his position by taking no for an answer. This case is no different.

For a while now, activist investor Carl Icahn put pressure on ImClone Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: IMCL) board and shareholders, demanding the resignation of chairman David Kies. This morning, Kies has finally resigned, effective immediately. Board member William W. Crouse has also resigned effective immediately. No official reasons were given.

Icahn has a 14% stake in ImClone, a biotech company making the cancer drug Erbitux. The company was for sale during most of the year until August.

Earlier this month, Icahn sent a proposal to shareholders, asking them to remove half, that is, six of the 12-member board. Kies was only one of them, CEO Fischer another. Icahn suggested a person of his choice to be elected for the board. Icahn's reasoning were failure to expand sales of Erbitux and the inability of the board to reach a decision regarding a $36 per share bid from an unknown drugmaker. Update: According to The New York Times, the bidder was France's Sanofi-Aventis SA.

In response to Icahn's proposal, ImClone urged investors to reject it, saying he failed to support the bid and that his suggestions "are not in the best interests of the Company's stockholders."