Starboard's Smith targeting pharma firm for proxy fight
Starboard Value is making a move against a pharmaceutical company it says is mismanaged, CEO Jeff Smith said Wednesday.

Smith said his activist firm is looking to replace the board at Depomed , a pharma company that specializes in pain and neurology products.

While the company in recent years "has seen strong growth in many of its core products," it remains hampered by a lack of scale and an over-emphasis on remaining independent, Smith said. On the latter point, he criticized Depomed for fighting off an offer last year from Horizon Pharma , which was offering a 60 percent premium for the company.

"We are concerned that this lack of scale potentially pushes the company to make poor capital allocations and poor strategic decisions," he said Wednesday at the Ira Sohn Investment Conference in New York.