Activism Archive

When stocks take the kind of nosedive they did in December 2018, market prognosticators tend to pronounce slowdowns in all types of activity from M&A to IPOs and debt financing. Shareholder activism often gets tossed into this mix. While the volatile markets certainly impacted the 2018 year-end results for a number of activists, from our vantage point we see the record shareholder activist activity that occurred in 2018 continuing into this year not despite of but – ...

Activism is everywhere. From the streets of our neighborhoods and fiery boardroom meetings to political junkies and those motivated by local or social causes, there is no shortage of issues being brought to our attention by commentators and keyboard warriors continuously trawling through and analyzing who said what. In some instances, this has given rise to a new type of CEO: the ‘activist’. This creature takes different forms: publicly outspoken, actively invol...

One of the world’s largest, most-respected companies has just received a very public humiliation from its shareholders, providing a timely reminder that no matter how large the organization, no matter how charismatic the leader, no matter how effective the management team, all companies must answer to their shareowners.  Unilever is an Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company, maker of much-loved global brands s...

The image of the activist shareholder has changed, especially in Asia. Accused of being short term, secretive corporate raiders in the past, activists are now careful to position themselves as ‘change agents’, helping companies unlock value and drive growth. Today, shareholder activists are very willing to play the long game, as can be seen by Elliot Management’s multi-year campaign against Samsung in South Korea, and have been claiming high-profile suc...