Kingsdale Advisors has released its annual Proxy Season Review for 2018. The Review examines trends observed in 2018, predicts issues on the horizon, and provides advice to both issuers and activists in the marketplace. In what follows, we pick out just a few of the important trends that emerge from Kingsdale’s analysis. The complete report … Continue reading
Activist hedge funds have grown up and gone global, reinforcing the need for companies of all shapes and sizes to plan ahead for the possibility of an attack. A recent article by Martin Lipton in the Harvard Law School Forum of Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation reviews recent developments in the activist landscape and reconfirms … Continue reading
The recent increase in hedge fund activism is “hyperbolic” and should be carefully assessed, according to two notable scholars, John C. Coffee Jr. (corporate law; Columbia) and Darius Palia (corporate finance; Rutgers), who have just published on comprehensive study on hedge fund activism entitled, “The Impact of Hedge Fund Activism: Evidence and Implications.” The authors … Continue reading
Activist shareholders have been accused of hindering innovation in companies they target. During a 2-3 year activist engagement in a company, activist shareholders focused on pursuing short-term goals may seek to cut costs in the target, maximize profits, then exit quickly, (possibly) with little care for the long-term prospects of the target company. In Hedge … Continue reading
Shareholder activism has been dubbed “the new M&A” in recognition of activists’ propensity to drive companies to pursue value-creating transactions. Last month, Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management took this trend to a new level when it teamed up with Quebec-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International to orchestrate a hostile takeover bid for Botox manufacturer Allergan Inc. … Continue reading
Posted in Proxy Battles, Shareholder Activism
