Activist investors often begin planning their campaigns as much as a year in advance of the annual meeting. This includes accumulating stock positions, coordinating with other hedge funds in so-called “wolf packs,” analyzing...more
Passive hedge funds are increasingly considering active roles when they are dissatisfied with the management of specific portfolio companies. After describing such a scenario, the author discusses the steps a dissatisfied...more
The public debate about hedge-fund activism has long been informed by academic literature that found increases in shareholder value and operating performance after activist interventions. But do hedge-fund activists actually...more
In this report, Expanding the On-Ramp: Recommendations to Help More Companies Go and Stay Public, eight organizations—the American Securities Association, Biotechnology Innovation Organization, Equity Dealers of America,...more
Listed below are selected funds with a recent history of US shareholder activism that we expect will continue those activities in connection with the 2017 proxy season. Companies should note that these activists may not...more
The obvious tension between the interests of long-term investors, such as institutional shareholders, and short-term investors, principally represented by hedge fund activists, has been the subject of much discussion of late....more
As reported earlier this year on Bloomberg, when activists seek to replace directors at target companies, they rarely look to women. Bloomberg analyzed data regarding five of the biggest U.S. activist hedge funds, each...more
A recurring demand by hedge funds activists is that the target company return capital to its shareholders by buying back its own stock. Data compiled by S&P and Bloomberg shows that companies in the S&P 500 spent 95% of their...more
To date, for the most part, when it comes to shareholder activism, the heavy lifting has been done by hedge fund activists. Now, as discussed in this NYT DealBook column, institutional shareholders may be stepping out on...more
As expected, the level of director communications with institutional shareholders has increased from 2012, up from 62% to 69%. More significant perhaps is the change occurring in the breadth of topics that directors are now...more
Is executive pay becoming a hot button issue for activist hedge funds? While executive pay has long been under scrutiny from standard-issue corporate governance activists, such as union pension funds, the interest of some...more