Activist Stocks: Qualcomm, YuMe, Biglari Holdings, Staples

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Activist confidantes, as usual, lite Monday. Below is what we scrounged together for April 13. Send tips to @activiststocks, sign up for our daily newsletter, and ICYMI the latest newsletter is here.

News:

Jana Partners is taking on Qualcomm. Not much of a surprise here, as Qualcomm has been begging for an activist. Jana owns 1.8% of the company and is pushing it to break up. The plan is to split its chip making and IP businesses. Not everyone was asleep at the wheel…“Now that it’s apparent the best growth years are behind Qualcomm, it’s time of an activist investor to step in and push for more shareholder returns.” h/t @stockpucker from Why Yum! needs an activist. And @ShortSightedCap called it back in Jan.

Activist Stocks

AVI Partners notes that since it nominated directors for the YuMe board that it has been having conversations with the board about corporate governance and strategy. The fund is putting one of its nominees on the board and removing the nomination for two of them. The fund still owns 9.2% of the company and shares are up just 3% since it went active in Jan.

Stories:

@DrewFitzGerald put something together the other day at WSJ and with the Biglari machinations it went unreported by us. In any case, Staples put one of Starboard Value’s nominees on its board, leading to the resignation of another director in protest. Starboard had been begging for a board seat, claiming that it can help oversee the Office Depot merger — touting its experience with the Office Depot and OfficeMax merger. At the bottom of the former Staples director’s resignation letter, it read “Sent from my iPad” [link]

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