PURPOSE® Fireside: How a Blocked Merger Saved Novo Nordisk — and the $500B Lesson Behind Ozempic

Kauffmann co-leads the Purpose Foundation in Berlin, which works to make steward ownership better known and more widely available. Purpose read the manuscript and sent Eric feedback before the final draft, and she then hosted him for a fireside chat; the recap on LinkedIn opens on Novo Nordisk.

“In the late 90s, a board of trustees blocked a merger that would have made everyone in the room very, very rich. Two years later, the company they were about to merge with was acquired and shut down. Meanwhile, the company they protected went on to invent Ozempic, a groundbreaking diabetes drug. From that blocked merger to the moment Novo Nordisk's market cap exceeded the GDP of Denmark: $500 billion in shareholder value created. Not just because someone (or some trustees in this case) said no. But because the ownership structure made protecting the mission non-negotiable, even when the "dump trucks of money" were pulling up outside.” — PURPOSE® on LinkedIn