It’s Not Your Imagination, Activism Has Grown

It’s not just the headlines: shareholder activism is in fact up this year. In the first half of 2015, there were almost as many campaigns as occurred in all of 2014, according to research by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

And hedge fund involvement this year has eclipsed the numbers for 2014. According to Gibson Dunn’s survey, 42 funds engaged in activist campaigns in the first six months of the year. In 2014, only 35 funds were involved for the entire year.

The report covered 56 activist campaigns at 50 U.S. public companies with market capitalizations of $1 billion and ...