“Yet companies, boards, and other investors should keep in mind that shareholder activism is often merely a tactic in a self-interested investment strategy. Shareholder activists such as hedge funds typically are pursuing short-term financial gain at the expense of long-term shareholders and stakeholders. These funds welcome the support of academics and theorists who argue that […]

In 2011, Pershing Square Capital Management, an activist hedge fund founded by William (Bill) Ackman, acquired some 14.2% of Canadian Pacific Railway’s outstanding shares and proceeded to require several changes in the management and governance of the company. The CP board resisted fiercely his entreaties. A memorable proxy fight ensued, which was won by Pershing […]

Financial Activism ” Over the past three years, the number and intensity of financial activism initiatives has increased. The ongoing debate on the wealth effects of hedge fund activism is worth following and is well-covered on Harvard’s corporate governance blog (blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov). Although financial activism may return immediate wealth to some shareholders through the sale of […]

Bebchuk et al. have produced a new version of their paper The Long-Term Effects of Hedge Fund Activism (December 2014) to be published in the June 2015 issue of the Columbia Law Review. In this revised text, the authors struggle valiantly to cope with the challenging questions a number of critics have raised about their […]

“ A paper by Dr. Yvan Allaire entitled “The Value of ‘Just Say No,’” and also memos by our firm (here and here, the latter memo discussed on the Forum here), demonstrated that an ISS client note entitled “The IRR of No,” which argued that companies that had “just said no” to hostile takeover bids […]

“If you guessed Hedge Funds, take your seat at the head of the class.  And, do the hedge fund and private equity firms deliver on Shareholder Value?  Not quite: “…the most generous conclusion one may reach from these empirical studies has to be that “activist” hedge funds create some short-term wealth for some shareholders as […]

In case you missed it last weekend, Donna Dabney, Executive Director of the Governance Center at The Conference Board posted this November 14th presentation by  Dr. Yvan Allaire presented at the Annual Meeting of The Conference Board Governance Center. His talk was titled Do activist interventions create long term shareholder value? Allaire reviews a lot of studies and […]

In our paper “Activist” hedge funds: creators of lasting wealth? What do the empirical studies really say?” (available here), we asked Lucian Bebchuk, Alon Brav and Wei Jiang questions of the sort that any referee/reviewer for a professional journal would raise about their paper The Long-Term Effects of Hedge Fund Activism. Their paper’s aim is […]

“About a year ago, Professor Lucian Bebchuk took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to declare that he had conducted a study that he claimed proved that activist hedge funds are good for companies and the economy. Not being statisticians or econometricians, we did not respond by trying to conduct a study proving […]

Hedge funds have found, in some academic circles, supporters and champions of their enduring contribution to shareholder wealth. Some recent empirical research has triggered an important debate in the American corporate/financial world about the role of board of directors, the rights of shareholders, and the very concept of the business corporation. The terms of the […]

The governance reforms carried out in publicly traded companies since, if not before, the fiascos called Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Global Crossing, et alia have resulted in boards of directors largely staffed with independent, diligent people with solid business experience. Then, why is it that boards, though dutiful and careful, remain surprise-prone and ill-equipped to challenge […]

In a recent commentary in The Globe and Mail, Gwyn Morgan, the former chair of the board of SNC-Lavalin, gives us his take on what happened within the engineering giant and offers some advice to improve corporate governance. The gist of his piece bears on how hard working and diligent the chairman and the board […]

In an opinion piece in the Globe and Mail of July 26th, 2013, Mr. Gwyn Morgan, the former chair of the board of SNC-Lavalin gives us his take on what happened there and offers some suggestions to improve corporate governance. The gist of his piece bears on how hard-working and diligent were the chairman and […]

On March 13, 2013, the Autorité des marchés financiers and the Canadian Securities Administrators published, for comment, proposed amendments and changes to Multilateral Instrument 62-104 Take-Over Bids and Issuer Bids, National Policy 62-203 Take-Over Bids and Issuer Bids, and National Instrument 62-103 Early Warning System and Related Take-Over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues. On March […]