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  • John C. Coffee, Jr. – Boeing and the Future of Deferred Prosecution Agreements By John C. Coffee, Jr.
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Editorial Board John C. Coffee, Jr. Edward F. Greene Kathryn Judge

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activist

Wachtell Lipton Puts a Spotlight on Boards

By Martin Lipton, Steven A. Rosenblum, Karessa L. Cain and Hannah Clark September 9, 2021 by renholding

The ever-evolving challenges facing corporate boards prompt periodic updates to a snapshot of what is expected from the board of directors of a public company—not just the legal rules, or the principles published by institutional investors and various corporate and …

Corporate Vote Suppression: The Anti-Activist Pill in The Williams Companies Stockholder Litigation

By Jeffrey N. Gordon August 19, 2021 by renholding

The Delaware Supreme Court has before it a case that could dramatically reshape corporate governance in the United States.  The case, The Williams Companies Stockholder Litigation, addresses the legitimacy of an “anti-activist pill” whose particularly aggressive features would severely …

Petition for Rulemaking on Short and Distort

By John C. Coffee, Jr. and Joshua Mitts February 18, 2020 by renholding

Short selling serves a critical function in the capital markets by encouraging price discovery and preventing the formation of asset bubbles.  But recent years have seen a rise in “negative activism,” a novel phenomenon that has flourished in the era …

Wachtell Lipton Discusses Shareholder Activism in France as Model for U.S.

By Martin Lipton and Joshua R. Cammaker November 11, 2019 by renholding

In response to the sharp increase in campaigns by activist hedge funds in France and Europe generally, a French commission has conducted an extensive investigation and issued a carefully researched, reasonable and balanced report recommending regulatory and procedural changes to …

Finding Friends Is Hard: Long-Term Investors’ Relationship with Proxy Advisers, Activists, and Equity Funds

By Neil Whoriskey August 7, 2019 by renholding

Institutional investors are howling for US public companies to focus more on the long-term.[1]  This is unsurprising. Long-term focused companies produce significantly better results over time, reporting far greater revenue growth with less volatility, far higher levels of economic …

The Long-Term Effects of Shareholder Activism

By Emmanuel Pezier June 26, 2019 by renholding

Shareholder activism is growing in popularity across the world and appears to deliver mostly benign results for firms and stockholders. However, testing the effects of activism is problematic.  For at least 30 years, researchers have recognized the difficulty of causal …

The Neglected Role of Justification Under Conditions of Uncertainty

By Claire A. Hill and Alessio M. Pacces March 12, 2019 by renholding

A hot topic in corporate governance is the so-called short-termism of publicly held companies. In response to actual and anticipated pressure from activist hedge funds, companies are, some say, focusing too much on short-term gains by, for instance, shunning research …

Wachtell Lipton on Dealing with Activist Hedge Funds and Other Activist Investors

By Martin Lipton, Steven A. Rosenblum, Karessa L. Cain and Sabastian V. Niles February 4, 2019 by renholding

Regardless of industry, size or performance, no company should consider itself immune from hedge fund activism.  No company is too large, too popular, too new or too successful.  Even companies that are respected industry leaders and have outperformed the market …

Activism Pressure and the Market for Corporate Assets

By Ulrich Hege and Yifei Zhang January 23, 2019 by renholding

The rise of shareholder activism, and its recent international expansion, have led researchers to look at many aspects of hedge fund activism. Academic papers have almost exclusively focused on the effects on firms targeted in activist campaigns. But the intense …

Activist Shareholders at De Facto Controlled Companies

By Gaia Balp January 16, 2019 by renholding

Activist campaigns are on the rise on both sides of the Atlantic. Even large-cap companies are increasingly targeted by activists—particularly hedge funds—with remarkable success. A big reason for that success is the support that activist proposals attract from traditional institutions, …

How Lenders React When Activists Target Borrowers

By Sandeep Dahiya, Issam Hallak and Thomas Matthys January 9, 2019 by renholding

A number of recent news stories have recounted the quick and dramatic changes that activist hedge funds trigger in the companies they target. In the Atlantic magazine, for example, a 2016 article describes DuPont’s decision to cut 10 percent of …

Wachtell Lipton on the State of Play of Activism at Year-End 2018

By Martin Lipton and Zachary S. Podolsky January 3, 2019 by renholding

As we noted in early 2018, the threat of activism continues to be high, and has become a global phenomenon.  The conclusion of a volatile and dynamic 2018 prompts a brief update of the state of play.

  • Activist assets under
…

Delaware’s PLX Decision Reminds Corporate Boards of Perils of Navigating Activist Campaign

By Eduardo Gallardo November 29, 2018 by renholding

A recent decision of the Delaware Court of Chancery highlights the need for boards of directors of Delaware publicly traded companies to develop heightened awareness and vigilance in responding to shareholder activists, particularly those following a short-term agenda of putting …

1 Comment  

Long-Term Economic Consequences of Hedge Fund Activist Interventions

By Ed deHaan, David. F. Larcker and Charles McClure October 23, 2018 by renholding

Our new academic study examines the long-term effects of interventions by activist hedge funds. Prior studies document positive equal-weighted long-term returns and operating performance improvements following activist interventions, and typically conclude that activism is beneficial to shareholders. We challenge and …

Wachtell Lipton Discusses Shareholder Activism, Corporate Governance, and the Hunt for Long-Term Value

By Sabastian V. Niles June 22, 2018 by renholding

As the spotlight on boards, management teams, corporate performance and governance intensifies, as articles like the Bloomberg and Fortune profiles of Elliott Management (“The World’s Most Feared Investor—Why the World’s CEOs Fear Paul Singer” and “Whatever It Takes to Win—How …

Hedge Funds’ Short-Term Thinking: Does It Matter for Merger Payments?

By Ning Gao, Olga Kolokolova and Achim Mattes April 24, 2018 by renholding

In 2010, Roger Carr, then-chairman of British confectionery Cadbury, waged a grueling five-month battle before losing control of the company to Kraft Foods.  “At the end of the day,” he said, “there were simply not enough shareholders prepared to take …

The Power of Voluntary Disclosure by Activist Shareholders

By Ryan McDonough and Jordan Schoenfeld March 29, 2018 by renholding

A key challenge for activist investors is convincing other shareholders that the activist agenda will increase the value of a target firm. Accordingly, activists commonly release public disclosures through traditional and social media, news wires, or their fund’s website. These …

Deadlock on the Board

By Jason Roderick Donaldson, Nadya Malenko and Giorgia Piacentino January 23, 2018 by renholding

The board of directors is the highest decision-making authority in a corporation. But sometimes boards struggle to make decisions. In surveys, 67 percent of directors report the inability to decide about some issues in the boardroom. Moreover, 37 percent say …

Wachtell Lipton Discusses Deal Activism and the EQT Proxy Contest

By Edward D. Herlihy and Steven A. Cohen November 15, 2017 by renholding

“Deal Activism,” in which activists invest to oppose announced deals, has become an increasingly frequent component of the activist playbook.  While efforts by the target company’s shareholders to oppose a deal to secure a higher bid have received the most …

Wachtell’s Lipton Reviews the State of Play in Activism

By Martin Lipton September 21, 2017 by renholding

As we approach the start of the 2018 proxy season, developments since January 2015 prompt a brief review of the state of play.

  • There has been no slowdown in the U.S.; there has been a significant increase in other countries.
…
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Each business day, our team sifts through blog posts, news stories, and other sources to keep up-to-date on relevant recent developments. The following links will take you to our recommended selections. To see the sources we follow click Filter Sources.

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