Immunex CEO Getting Lucrative Amgen Deal
The head of Immunex Corp. will leave the executive suite with a lucrative “golden parachute” and a part-time job at Amgen Inc. that will pay at least $2,083 an hour.
Chief Executive Edward V. Fritzky, 51, is getting a two-year contract that pays him $500,000 a year for no more than 20 hours of work each month, according to a regulatory filing. Amgen also will pay up to $250,000 to provide Fritzky with office space.
Thousand Oaks-based Amgen made the filing in connection with its pending $16-billion acquisition of rival Immunex in the largest biotechnology merger ever. The deal gives Amgen a potential blockbuster drug in Enbrel, a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.
In connection with the deal, which requires shareholder approval, Merrill Lynch & Co., advisor to Immunex, will receive $30 million in fees. The amount Amgen will pay its advisors, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Bear, Stearns & Co. and Salomon Smith Barney, wasn’t disclosed.
Amgen also disclosed that Immunex faces three shareholder suits in Washington state court over the merger. Two suits allege Immunex should have auctioned itself to obtain a higher price and all three suits accuse Immunex officers of failing to act in the best interests of shareholders. Immunex is fighting the suits, which seek class-action status.
Amgen will pay Fritzky, who is expected to join Amgen’s board, a “retention bonus” of $1 million, over two years. That’s on top of the $5.4-million lump sum Fritzky will receive as a golden parachute.
He also will get a grant of 100,000 restricted Amgen shares--34,000 immediately and the rest spread over two years. At Amgen’s closing price Friday of $57.88, that benefit is worth $5.8 million. And Fritzky will get an option for 450,000 more Amgen shares.
These benefits are in addition to the amount Fritzky will receive for his 2.8 million Immunex shares, the amount he owns according to the company’s 2001 proxy. Those shares are worth $84.3 million based on Amgen’s Friday close.
Fritzky earned $680,000 in salary and received a $1.4-million bonus in 2000 at Immunex.
Other top officers of Immunex will get packages and retention bonuses. Peggy V. Phillips, chief operating officer, will receive a combined $4.6 million and Douglas E. Williams, chief technology officer, will get a combined $3.4 million. They have agreed to join Amgen.
Phillips’ Immunex stake is worth $34.3 million and Williams’ is worth $25.3 million, based on figures in Immunex’s proxy.
