Activist shareholder Carl Icahn’s proxy war with the board of Amylin Pharmaceuticals received a boost yesterday when a Delaware judge fast-tracked a hearing on his lawsuit to replace the company’s directors. Delaware Chancery Court Judge John Noble scheduled for May 10 a hearing on delaying Amylin’s annual meeting, set to take place five days later. In a 12-page opinion, Judge Noble said Icahn adequately alleged that the board “radically changed its outlook for the company” by refusing to engage Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). That opinion sided with Icahn’s argument in court papers that he would have proposed a slate of dissident shareholders in time for the annual meeting had he and other Amylin shareholders known that the board was altering its strategy.
