Andrew M. Freedman, Steve Wolosky, and Ron S. Berenblat are partners at Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP. This post is based on an Olshan publication by Mr. Freedman, Mr. Wolosky, Mr. Berenblat, and Kenneth Mantel. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes The Long-Term Effects of Hedge Fund Activism by Lucian Bebchuk, Alon Brav, and Wei Jiang (discussed on the Forum here); and Dancing with the Activists by Lucian Bebchuk, Alon Brav, Wei Jiang and Thomas Keusch (discussed on the Forum here).
As shareholder activists fine-tune their communications strategies for the upcoming proxy season, we expect that many will view social media as an increasingly important means of getting their message out to shareholders. Although a number of prominent investors have used certain forms of social media for years (e.g., Carl Icahn’s use of Twitter), we have only recently seen investors begin to engage with multiple social media platforms as part of a comprehensive digital and social media strategy for their campaigns. Noted examples include Elliott Management’s successful campaign at Arconic and Pershing Square’s ongoing election contest at Automatic Data Processing.
This post lays out the important legal issues and other information that investors should consider when evaluating whether and how to use social media in their upcoming campaigns.
