Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. completed the acquisition of 24.23% stake in Akcea Therapeutics, Inc..
Laura Knoll, Moshe Spinowitz, Paul Schockett, Ken Kumayama, Maya Florence, Timothy F. Nelson and Graham Robinson of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP acted as legal advisors to Ionis. Zachary Blume and Christopher Comeau and David McIntosh of Ropes & Gray LLP acted as legal advisors and Cowen and Company, LLC acted as financial advisor to Special Committee of Akcea. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Susan Kirtland, Decla Quirke, Melissa Chan and Harvinder Minhas of Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets acted as financial advisors to Ionis. Cowen and Company, LLC also provided opinion to the special committee regarding the fairness of the offer price. Michael Dorf of Shearman & Sterling LLP acted as legal advisor to Cowen and Company, LLC in the transaction. American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC acted as depository and Alliance Advisors, LLC acted as information agent to Akcea Therapeutics. The engagement letter between Ionis and Goldman Sachs provides for a transaction fee that is estimated, based on the information available as of the date of announcement, at approximately $10 million. The engagement letter between Ionis and Stifel provides for a transaction fee of $10 million. Ionis paid $0.02 million as fee and expenses to the information agent and legal fees and expenses of $4.7 million.
Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NasdaqGS:IONS) completed the acquisition of 24.23% stake in Akcea Therapeutics, Inc. (NasdaqGS:AKCA) on October 12, 2020. As a result of the completion of the transaction, Akcea has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Ionis, and the common stock of Akcea will cease to trade on NASDAQ and be delisted. Ionis used approximately $545 million of its cash for the Akcea acquisition. Damien McDevitt, B. Lynne Parshall, Elaine Hochberg, Joseph Klein, III, Amber Salzman, Sandford D. Smith, Michael J. Yang, and Barbara Yanni resigned as directors of Akcea Therapeutics, Inc. Brett Monia assumed the roles of director and President of the Corporation.