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☆ Impactive Capital takes an unprecedented step to seek change at Envestnet. This is what could happen next
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Kenneth Squire | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Activist Commentary: Impactive Capital is an activist hedge fund founded in 2018 by Lauren Taylor Wolfe and Christian Alejandro Asmar. Impactive wants board representation to get Envestnet to better align pay for performance, refocus on capital allocation and bolster long-term shareholder value. Anyone with any understanding of Impactive, Envestnet's performance and the incumbent board would know that Impactive is sure to get at least one board seat in a proxy fight. Impactive offered one of eight with no incumbent losing a board seat. Squire is also the creator of the AESG™ investment category, an activist investment style focused on improving ESG practices of portfolio companies.

☆ Starboard takes a stake in Splunk. Here’s how the activist investor may help boost margins
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Kenneth Squire | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Activist Commentary: Starboard is a very successful activist investor and has extensive experience helping companies focus on operational efficiency and margin improvement. Splunk has a leading market share and is considered the "gold standard" in the log management and security markets. This is a typical Starboard investment – a company with strong top-line growth and enviable market position that needs help with optimizing growth and margins. When an activist takes a position at a company, it puts that company in pseudo-play with potential acquirers often coming out of the woodwork. You would think that their interest level has piqued a little with Splunk now trading at a $12.7 billion market cap.

☆ Carl Icahn snaps up shares of canning giant Crown. Here’s how he may build value
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Kenneth Squire | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Business: Crown Holdings is a worldwide leader in the design, manufacture and sale of packaging products for consumer goods and industrial products. Activist Commentary: Carl Icahn is the grandfather of shareholder activism and a true pioneer of the strategy. The opportunity to create shareholder value here is relatively simple: sell non-core businesses, buy back shares and focus on the pure-play beverage business. The company announced its acquisition of Signode, a transit packaging business, for $3.9 billion in 2017, and might be reluctant to sell it for less than that now. There is more value in how they use those proceeds (i.e., buying back stock in an undervalued, growing business).

☆ Activist Starboard takes a stake in Vertiv, and an opportunity to boost margins is in sight
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Kenneth Squire | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Activist Commentary: Starboard is a very successful activist investor and has extensive experience helping companies focus on operational efficiency and margin improvement. Starboard sees Vertiv as a great business in a solid industry with secular tailwinds – more data is being generated every day requiring more data centers. After going public, Vertiv delivered solid results, which allowed management to continue to focus on revenue growth, rather than operating margins. This is a typical situation for Starboard: a private company CEO running a public company like a private company leading to underperforming operating margins. Both Starboard and Vertiv seem to be on the same page.

☆ U.S. hedge fund Third Point opens Tel Aviv office to scout investments
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Svea Herbst-Bayliss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Loeb's $14 billion New York-headquartered hedge fund Third Point LLC is opening an office in Tel Aviv on Monday, creating an outpost in a city known for its booming technology sector. For Third Point, one of the hedge fund industry's most successful firms, the Tel Aviv office will become its first international location. Sapir Harosh, who worked in military intelligence and joined TPV from Israeli firm Pitango earlier this year, will head the Tel Aviv office. In April, New York-based General Atlantic, opened its Tel Aviv office. Third Point finished raising its first dedicated venture fund in 2021 and is currently taking in cash for its second venture fund, a person familiar with the fundraising said.

☆ Two potential opportunities for value creation emerge as Starboard takes a stake in Salesforce
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( Kenneth Squire | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Starboard views Salesforce as a high quality and sticky business at an attractive valuation with the potential for significant value creation through a better balance of growth and profitability. Salesforce peers are operating at a "rule of 50" – average revenue growth plus adjusted operating margins of peers equals 49.4. Salesforce currently has a revenue growth rate of 17.0% and 20.4% operating margins, which brings it to 37.4 combined. Starboard has had extensive experience with growth companies that begin to see slowing growth rates and need to either regain that growth and/or focus on margins. Even if they were to hit that target, this would only bring them to a growth + margin of 42.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterThe trio of stocks presented by Smith have fallen between 37% and 54% this year. Smith was detailing the thesis of his most recent investments at the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit on Tuesday. "We think there's significant upside at Splunk," Smith said noting the company could boost free cash flow margins and maintain strong growth profile that could allow Splunk to generate eight to $9 of free cash flow per share by 2025. He added that, as well as growing profitability, Splunk's business made it highly attractive as a potential acquisition target. "This dynamic creates multiple ways to win and makes the investment in Splunk even more interesting," he added.

☆ Sachem Head's Ferguson says replacing CEO among tough jobs for activists
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Svea Herbst-Bayliss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Sachem Head invests with chemicals company Olin Corporation, flavors and fragrance company IFF and food service distributor US Foods Holding and each one replaced its chief executive officer after Sachem Head became involved. He praised the company's plan for share buybacks, saying it was eyeing buying back 20% of outstanding shares a year. The company's CEO Pietro Satriano also left the company. Activists often try to push for changes by influencing the board, sometimes by trying to get seats on the board. In a recent regulatory filing, Sachem Head said that it had made investments in FedEx and Hasbro, both of which have had activist investors pushing for changes this year.

NEW YORK, Oct 18(Reuters) - Impactive Capital continues to engage with WEX Inc (WEX.N) to bolster the payments company's fortunes, including using depressed valuations across the financial technology space to make beneficial acquisitions, the activist's managing partner said on Tuesday. The firm has been a shareholder since early 2021 of Portland, Maine-based WEX, which provides payments solutions and virtual cards to businesses including travel, fleet and healthcare. "Private and public company market valuations have come back down to earth and many payments companies are in desperate need of cash," Taylor Wolfe said. "We expect companies like WEX to be able to pounce on compelling acquisition opportunities in the coming years." Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by David French and Svea Herbst-Bayliss Editing by Nick ZieminskiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ ValueAct's Morfit sees Insight Enterprises stock surging as cloud computing grows
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Svea Herbst-Bayliss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Mason Morfit, the firm's chief executive and chief investment officer, said the company's stock price, currently trading at $87.63, could climb to as high as $500 a share in the next five years. Morfit said he was speaking out about Insight because it is broadly overlooked by the market. As Insight helps transform its partner companies, it is also transforming itself having hired a new chief executive earlier this year and having changed the bulk of senior management. For ValueAct, betting on the megatrend of digital transformation started when Morfit had a board seat at Microsoft (MSFT.O) years ago. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Oct 18 (Reuters) - Daniel Loeb's Third Point has built a significant position in toothpaste maker Colgate-Palmolive Co (CL.N) and sees value in a potential spinoff of its Hill's Pet Nutrition business and other brands, the activist investor said in a letter seen by Reuters. The investor letter did not disclose the size of Third Point's stake, but cited several reasons for investing in the consumer goods company, including its pricing power in inflationary conditions and the strength in its pet food business. Loeb called the pet segment one of the most "exciting" pockets in the consumer space and said the business could be worth roughly $20 billion if it were a standalone company. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register"There is meaningful hidden value in the company's Hill's Pet Nutrition business, which we believe would command a premium multiple if separated from Colgate's consumer assets," the letter said. Sales in Colgate's pet nutrition business have outpaced overall company revenue over the last few years as consumers pay more attention to the needs of their cats and dogs.

☆ Activist investor Starboard has sizable stake in Splunk
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Oct 16 (Reuters) - Activist investor Starboard Value LP has a nearly 5% stake in Splunk Inc (SPLK.O) and plans to push the software maker to take steps that would boost its share price, a source familiar with the matter said. Starboard and Splunk did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterLast week, Splunk added two directors to its board, including a partner from Hellman & Friedman. The private-equity firm owns about 7.8% stake in the software maker. Last month, the activist hedge fund disclosed its stake in website development platform Wix, supporting Wix's bid to become profitable.

☆ Activist ESG investing — the Goldilocks of responsible investing
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-08 | by ( Kenneth Squire | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Now, a bear market has exposed these weaknesses, and for the first time, the ESG investing movement has been losing some steam. This drastic reaction to ESG funds does on the right exactly what it is criticizing on the left: It takes an extreme position that exploits the views of the far right to weaponize the opponents of ESG funds just as many ESG funds were created to exploit and weaponize the acolytes of ESG. ESG investing is a term that combines two concepts: ESG and investing. Responsible ESG investing means not just being responsible to environmental, social and governance factors, but being a responsible investor to ESG factors and the goal of attaining outsized capital appreciation. Squire is also the creator of the AESG™ investment category, an activist investment style focused on improving ESG practices of portfolio companies.

☆ Starboard snaps up a position in Wix, and building free cash flow may become a focal point
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( Kenneth Squire | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Activist Commentary: Starboard is a very successful activist investor and has extensive experience helping companies focus on operational efficiency and margin improvement. Starboard has had a notable track record with web applications companies going back to 2004 with their 13D investment in Register.com. Starboard has extensive experience in helping companies optimize growth and margins, typically from a board level. There is one other similarity between Wix and many other Starboard activist positions. Ken Squire is the founder and president of 13D Monitor, an institutional research service on shareholder activism, and he is the founder and portfolio manager of the 13D Activist Fund, a mutual fund that invests in a portfolio of activist 13D investments.

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