Benzinga | Oct 21, 2021 01:11PM EDT

Bristol Myers Pledges To Offload Acceleron Shares: Bloomberg

* Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (NYSE:BMY) is planning to tender its shares in Acceleron Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:XLRN) after Merck & Co Inc (NYSE:MRK) agreed to buy the biotechnology company for $11.5 billion, Bloomberg reported citing people with knowledge of the matter.

* Bristol-Myers holds an 11.5% stake in Acceleron. Selling the stake will bring the Merck deal closer to completion.

* Another Acceleron investor, Avoro Capital, which holds about 7% of Acceleron's stock, said Merck's deal "drastically undervalues" Acceleron.

* Related: Activist Investor Thinks Merck Undervalues Acceleron Buy.

* Hedge fund Darwin Global, which owns 3.8% of Acceleron's stock, urged shareholders not to tender their shares.

* Darwin Global Management also said Acceleron execs have settled for a price that was far too low.

* By Darwin's math released Wednesday, the deal undervalues Acceleron by as much as $17 billion, given the blockbuster prospects of both Reblozyl and sotatercept.

* Another shareholder, Holocene Advisors, said last week that it didn't plan to tender its shares.

* Price Action: XLRN shares are up 0.67% at $173.66, BMY shares are down 0.89% at $57.56 during the market session on the last check Thursday.