Friday, February 21, 2014
Saturday, August 31, 2013
DealBook: With Huge War Chests, Activist Investors Tackle Big Companies
Thursday, July 25, 2013
DealBook: Activist Investor to Step Down From Yahoo Board
Steve Marcus/ReutersDaniel S. Loeb, founder of Third Point, at a conference in Las Vegas last year.2:09 p.m. | Updated To add Third Point’s earnings from its investment in Yahoo and include Yahoo’s afternoon share price.
The activist investor Daniel S. Loeb is parting ways with Yahoo.
Mr. Loeb, whose campaign to change Yahoo culminated in the appointment last year of Marissa Mayer as the company’s chief executive, has submitted his resignation from the board, Yahoo said Monday.
Two other directors originally nominated by Mr. Loeb’s firm, Harry J. Wilson and Michael J. Wolf, are also stepping down. The resignations, effective July 31, will leave Yahoo with a seven-member board, the company said.
In addition, Yahoo has agreed to buy 40 million shares of its stock from Mr. Loeb’s firm, Third Point, at a price of $29.11 a share, the closing price on Friday. That will leave Third Point with about 20 million Yahoo shares, or less than 2 percent of the common stock outstanding.
Third Point, which initially disclosed a 5.15 percent stake in Yahoo in September 2011, more than doubled its investment in less than two years. It initially paid about $509 million for 40 million shares, which it sold on Monday for $1.16 billion.
Yahoo’s stock fell more than 4 percent in trading on Monday, dipping below $28 a share in afternoon trading.
The hiring of Ms. Mayer from Google last July was considered a coup for Yahoo, an aging technology company in need of a fresh direction. She has overseen a string of acquisitions since then, including the $1.1 billion deal for Tumblr in May.
“Since our board’s rigorous search led us to hire Marissa Mayer as C.E.O., Yahoo’s stock price has nearly doubled, delivering significant value for shareholders,” Mr. Loeb said in a statement.
Ms. Mayer’s appointment came after a hard-fought campaign by Mr. Loeb that led to the ouster of the previous chief executive, Scott Thompson, in May of last year.
Yahoo said Monday that Max Levchin, a co-founder of PayPal, would remain on the board. His appointment in December was supported by both Third Point and the board.
The share repurchase plan announced Monday is part of Yahoo’s previously announced plan to buy $1.9 billion of stock, the company said.
“Daniel Loeb had the vision to see Yahoo for its immense potential — the potential to return to greatness as a company and the potential to deliver significant shareholder value,” Ms. Mayer said in a statement. “While there’s still a lot of work ahead, they’ve given us a great foundation.”
Thursday, June 20, 2013
DealBook: Activist Investor Calls for Breakup of Smithfield Foods
Keith Srakocic/Associated PressSmithfield’s brands include Smithfield, Eckrich, Farmland, Armour and others.An activist hedge fund took aim at Smithfield Foods on Monday, arguing that the pork producer should consider splitting itself up despite its proposed $4.7 billion sale to a major Chinese meat processor.
The fund, Starboard Value, wrote in a letter to Smithfield’s board that it believed the company was worth much more separately. Starboard says it owns a 5.7 percent stake, making it one of the largest shareholders in the company.
Shares of Smithfield were up more than 2 percent in premarket trading on Monday, although they remained below the offer price from Shuanghui International.
The letter signals a potential fight over Smithfield, one of the country’s biggest producers of hogs. Last month, it agreed to sell itself to Shuanghui for $34 a share, in a bid to increase sales of American pork in China.
But Starboard has picked up an argument advanced against Smithfield over the years: that its vertically integrated operations, from raising hogs to slaughtering and processing them into bacon and ham and then selling the products, are worth more separate than combined.
“We believe there are numerous interested parties for each of the company’s operating divisions, and that a piece-by-piece sale of the company’s businesses could result in greater value to the company’s shareholders than the proposed merger,” the hedge fund wrote.
Starboard may be in for a tough fight. Smithfield’s management team, led by C. Larry Pope, has defended the logic of keeping the company whole, as have Shuanghui executives. Before announcing the deal with Shuanghui, Smithfield had been in talks with two other buyers as well.
One of Smithfield’s former biggest investors, the Continental Grain Company, had also called for a breakup of the company, but instead sold off virtually its entire stake this month, taking advantage of the higher share price since the Shuanghui deal was announced.
Starboard acknowledged that Smithfield’s deal with Shuanghui prevented it from seeking rival takeover bids. Instead, the hedge fund offered to look for and bring in potential bidders for Smithfield’s divisions.
In taking aim at Smithfield, Starboard is choosing one of its biggest targets yet. The activist hedge fund has made its name agitating against the likes of AOL.