Forest Laboratories sold to Actavis after Icahn campaign (2014)
Carl Icahn took a roughly 11% stake in Forest Labs in 2011 and ran two proxy fights against the founding Solomon family, eventually winning four board seats. In February 2014, Forest agreed to sell to Actavis for $25 billion, with Icahn's stake worth approximately $1.7 billion at the deal price.
Founder Howard Solomon's son Andrew, who had been groomed as successor, never took over. Forest's specialty-pharma franchise was absorbed into Actavis.
Actavis later became Allergan, then was acquired by AbbVie in 2020 for $63 billion, putting Forest's assets through three owners in six years—a cautionary case for how activist-driven sales can accelerate further consolidation.
Closest medical-industry parallel: minority activist holding (~10%), multiple proxy fights, founder family ousted, strategic sale at a large premium. The Masimo sequence compresses essentially the same script.
