Sachem Head Capital, who went activist on Autodesk earlier this week with a near 6% stake. Sachem could be interested in Autodesk’s shift to become more a cloud play. This is the same fund that’s an activist at the dealership software company CDK Global. 65% of its portfolio are in these two names.
Sachem Head was founded by Scott Ferguson in 2012 after he left activist Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management.
In terms of his Autodesk position, Scott hasn’t had discussions with management yet but hopes to. However, things are already heading up. Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, when learning of Sachem’s stake, said:
“I don’t think these guys care one bit about return on investment. I think active investors, as the name suggests of their behavior, they are here for a short hit … You could cut every expense in almost every technology company and get better returns for the short term, and I would almost guarantee you would have no long-term future.”
