Investor Objectives, Strategies, and Key Considerations in Shareholder Activism

Summary

This practice note outlines the main types of activist campaigns and highlights the fundamental principles underlying the applicable rules and regulations. Activist campaigns and shareholder engagement programs are highly situational and fact-specific. Thus, generalizations are not particularly useful, but there are some commonalities to the types of campaigns and opportunities undertaken by activist investors. In addition, there is a broad range of shareholders who find themselves engaged in what can be identified as activist behavior, and there is an equally broad range of strategies that can be incorporated in an activist's playbook, or defenses that can be deployed by targeted companies.