Learning To Deal With Activist Shareholders: McKinsey

It’s no secret that activist shareholders are have entered the mainstream and that they are willing to take on the largest companies in America if they see weak performance, conflicts of interest, or too much cash sitting around. In the past, most management teams reflexively saw activist campaigns as hostile attacks and sought to prevent them from succeeding, but research from the last few years shows that these campaigns have a strong record of unlocking value, and that the best outcomes are when management engages with activist shareholders to find a reasonable compromise.

Collaborative outcomes are best for everyone, but still the exception

“Our analysis of 400 activist campaigns (out of 1,400 launched against US companies over the past decade) finds...