The data show why proxy fights – which we define as a contested campaign for board composition, whether or not it ends up at a vote – continue to be a minority of activist campaigns. Since 2014 just 12% of all U.S. companies targeted and 28% of board representation demands have ended up in one.
After the #PullUpOrShutUp hashtag went viral in early June, companies everywhere were treated to a serious wake-up call...
Our profile in this month’s issue of Activist Insight Monthly is with Jeff Ubben, who recently shocked the activist community by taking his environmental and socially-focused Spring Fund outside of ValueAct Capital Partners, the firm he founded two decades ago. Under a new banner – that of Inclusive Capital Partners – he will have plenty of surprises up his sleeve and...
“In a year that has already been difficult enough for many businesses to navigate, the rise in activist investors in 2020 has created yet another area of disruption for many” said Aniel Mahabier, CEO of CGLytics...
In little over three weeks, COVID-19 put up formidable obstacles to everyday life. The new coronavirus is by no means only a financial story and our first concern is for the health and wellbeing of all of our readers and their loved ones. We hope you are all staying safe...
Toshiba Machine will seek shareholder approval for its poison pill defense, as demanded by activist investor Yoshiaki Murakami. The move follows a threat by the company to protect itself if Murakami’s takeover proposal does not respect a 60-day study period...
The concept of a country of the year, stolen shamelessly from The Economist, is a novel one at Activist Insight. But what better way to review a year in which activism pushed new boundaries and was often met with heavy-handed resistance...
Michael Larson, the money manager of Bill Gates, launched a legal battle against a board member of Swiss chemical company for violating his fiduciary duties. According to the Wall Street Journal, Cascade Investment LLC, the investment management firm controlled by Bill Gates and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust disclosed its lawsuit against Urs Burkard, a director Sika AG, a Swiss chemical company...
Institutional investors, with trillions in assets under management, hold increasingly important stakes in public companies and fund individual retirement for many Americans, making institutional investors’ behaviors and preferences paramount determinants of capital allocations and the economy. In this paper, we examine high fiduciary duty institutions' (HFDIs') response to decreased profit maximization pressure as measured by the effect of constituency statutes on HFDI investment...
This could, and will, take many shapes, from finding stocks that simply need an activist investor for various reasons or stocks that have an activist lurking, but they haven't gone “all in” yet. This is one of the early installments. Yet, a little different than how...
Putting aside these Directors’ undeniable qualifications to sit on our corporate Board, L&B is evidently unaware of, or deliberatively chooses to disregard, the fact that MGM operates a global business and faces a variety of complex issues that require ...
When looking at today’s high stock market valuations, the show’s primary guest, activist hedge fund manager Barry Rosenstein of Jana Partners discussed what might be viewed 10 years from now as a description of the golden age of the activist investor...
A monitoring role for fund boards comports with the economic reality that fund directors do not occupy, and generally do not see themselves as occupying, a position to negotiate with advisers in any sense comparable to how corporate directors or ...
Improved corporate governance , especially as it relates to capital allocation, is a key component to third arrow efforts for Abenomics and one which I feel would be most impactful. I have long argued that an effective way to create urgency among corporate ...
This corporate governance update (1) provides general information concerning proxy access (including a synopsis of arguments for and against), (2) summarizes the proxy access position of several of the largest asset managers and public pension funds, ...
As calendar-year reporting companies close the books on fiscal 2014, begin to tackle their annual reports on Form 10-K and think ahead to reporting for the first quarter of 2015, a number of issues warrant particularly close board and management attention.
A growing number of activist organizations such as Catalyst, the 30% Coalition, 2020 Women on Boards , and Alliance for Board Diversity whose missions are to increase women and minority representation on company boards are emerging. Progress has ...
Corporate governance trends gradually change year after year, and it's important for public companies to stay informed about best practices and so-called “norms” in their industries. Fenwick & West LLP, a law firm that represents many public companies ...
As reports say Coca-Cola could shed 1,000 to 2,000 jobs amid sagging financial results, and following the heels of a bruising executive compensation battle, Kent likely looks longingly for when he first started at Coke. Like Mark McGwire's playing ...
Carl Icahn thinks there is a junk bond bubble, and he's not alone. As he gave another investment warning, he also called corporate governance “totalitarian state.” Speaking on activism, the activist fund manager with a 20 percent annualized rate of return, said ...
Based on the filing, Jana Partners now owns more than 38.1 million shares (including options to purchase 11,378,815 shares) of Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HTZ). The activist investor bought its position in the company at an aggregate price of $712.2 ...
The Anti-Fraud Collaboration, a partnership between the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ), Financial Executives International (FEI), The Institute of Internal Auditors (The IIA), and the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), says that fraud usually ...
As a result of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, public firms must periodically hold advisory shareholder votes on executive compensation (“say on pay”). We examine how firms change the structure and level of executive pay when they face a say-on-pay vote...
PwC's Investor Resource Institute recently released its 2014 Investor Survey, which analyzes how investors are shaping today's board governance landscape. With boards prone to more scrutiny as investors increasingly voice their concern, the following ...