Activist benefactress, day heating up. Stories/news for May 8 below. Hit us with leads at @activiststocks, daily newsletter signup, ICYMI the latest newsletter is here.
News –
- Rovi sends a letter to its shareholders, taking to task Engaged Capital’s nominees for the board. Notably, calling out Engaged founder Glenn Welling – citing his lack of experience in IP, technology and operational matters [link]
- The Tempur-Pedic annual meeting is today. Note that H Partners is waging a proxy battle there. Having put up no nominees and no clear plan, the activist has an uphill battle [link]
- Gran Tierra Energy gave in to West Face Capital, backing its four board nominees and installing its recommendation for CEO [link]
- Ahead of the DuPont shareholder meeting next Wednesday, Trian Partners is facing some headwinds. You’ve got Calpers coming out against them yesterday and as we note, the big passive investors and sheep will be kingmakers next week [link to passive pansies and sheep investors at DuPont]
Stories –
- @chrisdieterich at Barron’s talks about how the large passive pansies (our words), such as Vanguard and Blackrock have started reaching out to activist investors to embrace the activism movement. It’s a bit of a rehash of the activist panel at SALT, but the key takeaway is, “Barry Rosenstein, managing partner and and co-portfolio manager at JANA Partners says that his firm has even incorporated its own jargon for when fund companies ask his hedge fund to pester corporations by proxy: “We call them RFAs — Requests for Activism” [link]
