market folly

Mark Rachesky's investment firm MHR Fund Management recently filed a Form 4 with the SEC regarding shares of Emisphere Technologies (EMIS). The filing detailed that Rachesky's firm was just issued warrants on Emisphere per a previous agreement. We see that MHR Fund Management received warrants for the right to buy 865,000 shares (in total) with an exercise date of August 21st, 2014 and a conversion price of $2.90. This is the first time we've covered portfolio activity out of MHR Fund Management and we plan on doing so from here on out.

Here's some background for those of you unfamiliar: Mark Rachesky received his B.S. in molecular aspects of cancer from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine. As if that wasn't already enough, he also holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Rachesky previously served as Carl Icahn's senior investment officer and managing director. After that, he went on to found his own firm, MHR Fund Management LLC.

While Rachesky obviously has ties to Icahn it's interesting to see them now essentially pitted against each other in another one of his investments. As we've detailed numerous times before, Icahn has been bidding for Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF), one of MHR Fund Management's largest holdings. So, it will certainly be interesting to watch the master and the apprentice potentially do battle there. (Though, you could easily argue that Rachesky is an apprentice no longer).

Taken from Google Finance, Emisphere Technologies is "a biopharmaceutical company that focuses on a delivery of therapeutic molecules or nutritional supplements using its Eligen Technology."

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