A new report details the eye-popping numbers surrounding activist campaigns in 2014, which reached new heights and targeted bigger companies than ever.
Keith Bedford / Reuters / Reuters
Last October, the activist hedge fund Starboard Value, claimed an unprecedented victory in its campaign to replace the entire board of Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants. It was the first time an activist had managed to unseat the whole slate of directors at such a large company, not to mention such a popular consumer-facing brand.
Starboard's victory, it turns out, was part of the changing tide of activist investing in the U.S., and was just one of 344 campaigns in 2014, according to a new report out by Activist Insight, which provides an annual look at the activist investment ecosystem in the U.S. and abroad.
2014 was a record smashing year, the report says: an 18% increase in activism over 2013's 291 campaigns, alongside a staggering success rate of 75%, a new high from 67% in 2013.
The fact that three out of four activist investors get all or part of what they are asking for is a good sign you can expect more and more activist investors in the future. The report points to some compelling evidence that activist investing is becoming more prevalent—not to mention effective—than at any point in the history of public companies.
Here's a look at activism by the numbers last year, and what it could mean for 2015 and the years to come.
Rick Wilking / Reuters
Jeff Smith's powerhouse activism fund carried out 11 public campaigns last year, the most notable of which was Starboard's ultimately successful pursuit of Darden's entire board, as well as its less successful push for an AOL-Yahoo merger (Starboard may not have got the meger, but Yahoo's spin-off of its Alibaba stake makes it ripe for a takeover by AOL or another potential buyer.
Dan Loeb's Third Point partners ranked second in activist investment activity last year, fighting for change at five public companies including Sony, Sotheby's and Dow Chemical, among others.
Close behind Loeb was Jana Partners, which counted causing a major shakeup at Walgreens and successfully pushing for a private equity buyout of PetSmart among its eight public campaigns.
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