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☆ Op-ed: How activist investors are deactivating with proxy battle losses
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( Jeffrey Sonnenfeld | Steven Tian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

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.

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

☆ Spotify reports record quarterly profit after a year marked by deep layoffs and activist attention
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Spotify reported first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, notching record quarterly profit and beating estimates on the top and bottom lines, after a year of deep cost cutting and streamlining. The company expects net new MAUs of 16 million, for a total of 631 million monthly active users. Spotify attributed the slowed growth to "moderated marketing activity" — driven by cost cutting — resulting in "more normalized growth." ValueAct, which manages nearly $12 billion in assets, has a 0.5% Spotify stake valued at $280 million. When the activist investor first disclosed the position in 2023, it owned around 1.2% of Spotify.

Persons: Daniel Ek, Joe Rogan, MAUs, Mason Morfit's ValueAct Organizations: Spotify, LSEG, StreetAccount Spotify Locations: Tokyo, Swedish

Trian claims Disney's board has failed to generate sufficient returns in recent years as subscription streaming losses have mounted and traditional TV subscribers have declined. Early vote countBoth Disney and Trian received support from influential shareholders ahead of Wednesday's meeting. Roughly one-third of Disney's shareholders are retail shareholders, who historically vote in small numbers in annual meetings. The arrangement still raised questions about ValueAct's support for the company and whether Disney's board should have disclosed the prior relationship. WATCH: Disney board battle reaches final moments

Persons: Bob Iger, Mickey Mouse, Valerie Macon, Nelson Peltz, Jay Rasulo, They've, Maria Elena Lagomasino, Michael Froman, Peltz, Ike Perlmutter, Trian, Disney's, Iger, Bob Chapek, Patrick T, Adam Jeffery, Morgan Stanley, James Gorman, CNBC's, George Lucas, Laurene Powell Jobs, Lucas, Powell Jobs, Ken Squire, Rowe Price, Rowe, Mason Morfit's, ValueAct, Neuberger Berman, John Ferguson, Rasulo —, Glass Lewis, Iger's, Gorman, Jeremy Darroch, CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin, Heidi Gutman, Lagomasino, shouldn't, Blackwells, Rasulo, Jason Aintabi, John Foley, Jessica Schnell, Craig Hatkoff, Leah Solivan, ValueAct hasn't Organizations: AFP, Getty Images Disney, Voters, Trian Partners, Disney, PepsiCo, Marvel, SEC, Fallon, Bloomberg, Getty, CNBC Disney, CNBC, Star Wars, LucasArts, Pixar, BlackRock, Institutional, California Public Employees, Yacktman Asset Management, Saratoga Proxy, ISS, Sky, Trian Fund Management, NBCU, Bank, NBCUniversal, Green, Comcast Locations: Los Angeles, New York

☆ Salesforce hires activist lawyer from Wachtell, Lipton as legal chief
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

July 17 (Reuters) - Salesforce (CRM.N) appointed Wachtell, Lipton's Sabastian Niles as its chief legal officer on Monday, months after the leading activist lawyer helped defend the business software provider against several hedge funds that had called for changes at the company. "I'm thrilled to welcome Sabastian to Salesforce as part of our world-class management team," CEO Marc Benioff said. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is a major law firm sought out by corporate America to handle merger deals as well as activist investment firms' push for changes. Niles spent nearly 17 years at the law firm, where he began his career as a summer associate after earning his law degree from Harvard, rising to become a partner. Niles was part of the team at Wachtell when it advised Salesforce after Starboard Value, ValueAct and Elliott Investment Management pressured it for making key changes earlier this year.

Persons: Wachtell, Lipton's Sabastian Niles, I'm, Marc Benioff, Lipton, Katz, Niles, Bill Ackman's, Jeffrey Ubben, Mason Morfit's, Salesforce, Svea Herbst, Bayliss, Yuvraj Malik, Vinay Dwivedi Organizations: Rosen, Harvard, Bill Ackman's Pershing, Capital Management, Elliott Investment Management, Svea, Thomson Locations: Salesforce, America, Wachtell, New York, Bengaluru

☆ ValueAct adds a streaming play to its portfolio
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Mason Morfit's ValueAct Capital Management picked up Spotify last quarter as the music streaming giant rebounded off its 2022 selloff. The ValueAct CEO added about 2.25 million shares to the portfolio. Spotify has surged nearly 70% in the first quarter, regaining ground after dropping 66.3% in 2022. SPOT YTD mountain Spotify YTD It was Morfit's only new position in the quarter, but he grew Salesforce by a whopping 500%, while Insight Enterprises got a relatively modest 2% boost. Similarly, KKR came in at the second biggest holding in the portfolio despite the more than 13% trim.

☆ How Wall Street pros traded 7 of our Club stocks, including Salesforce, in the first quarter
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | In Kevinstankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Lots of Club holdings, including Nvidia (NVDA) and Alphabet (GOOGL), were among the stocks traded by some of Wall Street's biggest investors and money managers in the first quarter. That firm, Jeffrey Ubben's Inclusive Capital, had owned 1.63 million Salesforce shares at the end of December, worth nearly $217 million at the time. Jeff Smith's Starboard Value also sold some Salesforce shares in Q1, leaving the firm with 2.5 million shares at the end of March. Mason Morfit's ValueAct Capital amplified its Salesforce stake in the first quarter, ending with 3.5 million shares, up from just 560,221 shares at the end of 2022. Loeb's Third Point amassed 4.75 million shares of Alphabet, worth $492.7 million at the end of the first quarter.

☆ Salesforce engineers are about to be hit with new performance metrics, while some salespeople are being pressured to quit
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Ellen Thomas | Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Some Salesforce employees have been offered a "Prompt Exit Package" instead of a layoff, with less severance. Employees say the company is ratcheting up performance expectations as activist investors invade. "The company is pushing hard for productivity tracking and metrics on all facets," one employee told Insider. Salesforce cut a few hundred salespeople in November, a person familiar with the matter told Insider, and the company told Insider the cuts were made for "accountability," implying that performance was a consideration. In some cases, the company has presented employees with PEP offers in the same week it has executed mass layoffs, employees told Insider.

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