Will Icahn Find Activist Success in the Biopharmaceutical Arena?

Given activist investor Carl Icahn's recent "golden touch", in light of last week's BEA Systems (Nasdaq: BEAS) buyout offer and the Biogen (Nasdaq: BIIB) sale news, we took a close look at Icahn's portfolio to see if there are any other potential companies that could be activist/takeover targets. Two companies from Icahn's portfolio that grabbed our interest were Enzon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: ENZN) and Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN).

Icahn initiated a 1,740,001 share stake in Enzon (3.95%) and a 1,008,779 share stake (1.3%) in Global Payments as of the quarter ended June 30, 2007.

Enzon is a biopharmaceutical company, an area Icahn has had great success. Icahn's successes in the area have included: ImClone (Nasdaq: IMCL), were he is Chairman; MedImmune - which was acquired by AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN); and Biogen (Nasdaq: BIIB) - which on Friday announced it is for sale.

Global Payments provides payment processing and consumer money transfer services worldwide. The company had been seen as a possible LBO target, before the leveraged takeover boom was brought to a halt due to the credit woes.