Monthly Archives: September 2024

Activism has remained robust over the past year, following a post-pandemic rebound. As we have previously noted, regardless of industry, size or performance, no company is too large, too popular, too new or too successful to consider itself immune from activism. Although poor stock price performance and operational and strategic missteps can increase vulnerability, even companies that are respected industry leaders and have outperformed the market and their peers have been and are being targeted by activists. Companies of various sizes have faced and remain susceptible to attacks from multiple activists at once, whether from a “wolf pack” of activist funds acting together or independent activists “swarming” the company at the same time. And activists are not averse to waging multi-year campaigns; even companies that have successfully fended off activism may still find themselves targeted by the same or a different activist in successive years.

Amid ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, activist theses focused on cost-cutting, capital allocation and management succession have taken a front seat next to M&A theses, particularly at companies facing cash flow headwinds and slowing revenue and margin growth. While the largest and most established activists continue to dominate activism activity, smaller and emerging activists have deployed less predictable (and often public) strategies to make their mark. Even a relatively unknown activist with a small ownership position can garner enough attention from the media to put the target company, regardless of its size, in an unwanted limelight.

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