Medical diagnostics developer Alere has brought in PR reinforcements in a proxy showdown with hedge fund Coppersmith Capital.
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher is working with Waltham, Mass.-based Alere in its campaign to convince shareholders that a Coppersmith slate of directors should be rebuffed at the company's annual meeting Aug. 7.
New York-based Coppersmith, working with Sard Verbinnen & Co and owning about 7% of Alere, is dangling a proxy card of three director candidates to urge the company to divest some of its units to reap more than $3B and boost its share price. It has also engaged proxy firm Mackenzie Partners.
Alere had 2012 revenue of $2.8B. First quarter 2013 revenue was up 10% to $735M with net income of $7.2M.
Sard Verbinnen managing director Dan Gagnier is handling Coppersmith for the firm.
At Joele Frank, partner Kelly Sullivan and managing director Annabelle Rinehart are helping position Alere's case that Coppersmith's plan is "value destructive" and that its predecessor firm, MMI Investments, had a poor track record when it obtained board seats at company's like DHT Holdings and Unisys Corp.
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