Mr. Fix-It Fred Hassan headed to Bristol-Myers?

Could Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. be the next stop for turnaround specialist Fred Hassan?

The 63-year-old CEO said earlier this year that he's not ready for retirement when he sells Schering-Plough Corp. to Merck & Co. for $41 billion. Hassan earned his reputation for building also-ran companies like Schering and Pharmacia Corp. into more efficient companies with top-selling products. (He sold Pharmacia to Pfizer Inc.) But there are few big U.S. drug companies left for Hassan to turn around. New York-based Bristol may fit the bill: a middling-size company with some past problems and a CEO who wasn't meant to stick around in the first place: James Cornelius, who is 65.

"The day he goes to (Bristol-Myers), I buy the stock because I know he's going to clean it up and sell it off," says Les Funtleyder, an analyst with Miller-Tabak.

Hassan, who isn't staying on after the merger, declines to comment through a spokesman. The surviving company will be called Merck and run by its managers.

"At this time, he is focused on driving Schering-Plough's business forward to deliver a strong company at the closing," Schering spokesman Stephen Galpin says.

One caveat: Cornelius, the director-turned interim CEO-turned full-time chief executive, appears to be having a pretty good time trying to turn Bristol around himself. Just last month, he announced a planned takeover of Princeton, N.J.-based biotech company Medarex Inc. The former Guidant Corp. chief stepped in as interim CEO in 2006 after Peter Dolan got the boot.

Bristol-Myers spokesman Brian Henry declines to comment.