For those who haven't followed this soap opera, Mark McDade earlier this year refused to quit under pressure from Dan Loeb, who runs Third Point LLC, a hedge fund and PDL's biggest shareholder.
Their feud made headlines when Loeb questioned McDade’s decision to spend $100 million to move headquarters from Fremont, Calif., to Redwood City, which is closer to his home. A key feature of the digs - a boat slip.
In February, Loeb issued a statement accusing McDade of "empire-building philosophy, pathological selfishness and poor business judgment,†and of rejecting a takeover bid from a drugmaker for more than $30 a share, or 50 percent more than the stock price at the time. PDL's chairman supported McDade, but not a company co-founder. For his part, McDade said he dealt with the stress by kayaking with his iPod.
Pretty soon, he can spend all day in the San Francisco Bay. Even though an internal, three-month investigation didn't find any evidence of improper personal conduct or breach of fiduciary duty, McDade will step down as ceo and board member at the end of the year due to the "personal toll" created by "unsubstantiated rumors" and the strain of the investigation.
Among the findings: there was no credible evidence of a conflict of interest relating to an alleged relationship between McDade and another PDL officer; there was no breach of a fiduciary duty by McDade concerning an alleged offer or purported indication of serious interest from a drugmaker to acquire PDL, and McDade didn't improperly withhold info from the board about an alleged offer or indication of interest," according to a statement.
Nonetheless, investors won't miss him. PDL shares were up more than 6 percent this afternoon. Just the same, he should bring a life vest anyway, don't you think?