Activism’s New Paradigm

By Gregory Taxin and Betsy Atkins*   Shareholder activism in the U.S. has increased greatly over the past decade, measured not only in scope and the pools of capital dedicated to it but also in sophistication and in the range of tactics employed. There is currently more than $120 billion in dedicated activist funds at work, […] Read more »

Activism’s New Rules

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By Montieth M. Illingworth, president of Montieth & Company   There it was in black and white in none other than The New York Times. Quotes from the CEO of DowDuPont, followed by ones from a line up of shareholders echoing the sentiment, that all is now actually much better for the company. The breakup once […] Read more »

The Year in Activism Infographic

From Activist Insight   related content: Consultant Verus Negative on Outlook for Event Driven Hedge Funds (Jan 2017) Can Activism Survive A Down Market? (March 2016) John Paulson on the Benefits of Activism (Dec 2010)   Read more »

Can Activism Survive A Down Market?

By Josh Black, Editor of Activist Insight   Davidoff Solomon is the Co-Director of Berkeley’s Center for Law, Business and the Economy. In January he wrote a column in “The New York Times” suggesting that 2016 would be the year activists met their match—not greater skepticism from institutional investors, or a new corporate governance framework, but […] Read more »

Jana Partners Uses Options To Manage Exposure To PetSmart

By Alex Gavrish, Etalon Investment Research; author of “Wall Street Back To Basics”   With activist investors more active than ever, more and more attention is being paid by investors to the investments they make. Publicity often reduces hedge funds maneuverability and ability to trade positions quickly. Fund managers have to work with this restriction […] Read more »

Tom Sandell: Everything International

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By Josh Black, Editor of Activism Monthly Premium   For Thomas Sandell, the media interest in his fund’s campaign at FirstGroup was somewhat unexpected. “We were a little bit surprised by the volume of publicity,” admits the Swedish-born, US-based investor. But more disturbing to Sandell was the lack of understanding of his plans from Fleet […] Read more »

Event Driven in May

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By Hedge Fund Insight staff* Event Driven managers had a negative month in May despite the high level of deal activity and the positive contribution from special situations trading. A number of the larger deal spreads either broke (Astra-Zeneca/Pfizer was not an official deal break, but it had the same effect) or widened. This was […] Read more »

Event Driven Strategy Outlook: Looking Beyond Merger Arb

By Alex Gavrish, Etalon Investment Research and author of “Wall Street Back To Basics”   Credit Suisse recently released its Annual Hedge Fund Investor Survey. The survey, produced by Credit Suisse’s Capital Services Group, is one of the most comprehensive in the industry, with over 500 respondents – including pension funds, endowments, consultants, family offices […] Read more »

Apple And The Activists

By Alex Gavrish, Etalon Investment Research and author of “Wall Street Back To Basics” It is clear that even without recent activist involvement by Carl Icahn in Apple, the stock provided an attractive investment opportunity. As of April 23th 2013, the day Apple announced second quarter results (FY 2013), the stock was trading at $406 […] Read more »