Whether today's activist investors contribute any genuine economic value is open for debate. As this year's proxy season draws to a close, defeat after defeat for activist investors in proxy fights this year – most prominently at Disney and Norfolk Southern – raises the question: Are activist investors increasingly getting de-activated, losing their credibility and power? These self-styled "activist investors" are distinct from the original activists who helped catalyze needed governance reforms two decades back. Many of today's activist investors are a far cry from the original, heroic crusaders for shareholder value who pioneered the activism space decades ago. However, given the failing financial performance of many of today's activist investors, their losing streak in proxy fights and increasing public rejection of their bullying tactics, the credibility and value of activist investors writ large is increasingly imperiled.

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Persons: Nelson Peltz's, Ed Garden, Ralph Whitworth, John Biggs of TIAA, John Bogle of, Ira Millstein, Weil, Nell Minow, Bob Monks, Harvard's Stephen Davis, Carl Icahn's, Aubrey McClendon, –, Bill Cohan, Jamie Dimon, Glass Lewis, resoundingly, Mason Morfit's ValueAct, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Lester, Steven Tian Organizations: CNBC, Salesforce, Dow Jones, Disney, Norfolk Southern, Relational Investors, John Bogle of Vanguard, Services, Chesapeake, Norfolk, JetBlue, Elanco, of Institutional Investors, United Shareholders Association, Responsibility Research, ISS, Lester Crown, Management, Yale University, Yale's, Institute Locations: Norfolk Southern, greenmailers, America