Activist follower, another strong day today. Activist investing news and stories for June 25 below. You should know by now that the free newsletter is on a 24-hour delay. Subscribe to Activist Strategy to get it on publication day or request a two-week free trial here. As usual, check out the tweets on @activiststocks to stay in the know and get on the free daily newsletter list.
News-
- Discovery Group is now active at Internap Corp. ($INAP) – the $500M market cap internet infrastructure company. It owns 5.3% with no plans of yet. Gamco is also an activist here, owning 12.3%.
- Icahn blew out of his Netflix position and notes that Apple is currently offering the same opportunity as Netflix did when it first invested in 2012.
- Cannell Capital lowers its Envivio ($ENVI) stake from 6.75% to 6.1%. This comes due to an agreement with possible board nominees being dissolved. Cannell still “likes” Envivo [link to our notes]
- Not activist related but Leon Cooperman dumped his Caesars Entertainment ($CZR) stake.
- The blocking of the U.S. Foods Sysco merger brings into question whether the FTC will support the Office Depot and Staples merger.
- Lone Star Value ups its Dakota Plains Holdings ($DAKP) stake from 7.8% to 7.9%, but also puts out thoughts on
- [link to our notes]
- Newton Glassman’s PE firm, Catalyst Capital, is suing Greg Boland’s West Face Capital again. I’m not even going to indulge it; you can read more at Bloomberg if you care.
- Wynnefield Partners takes its activist stake in MusclePharm from 7.7% to 4.7% – after going active in April. Consac is still active from May, owns 7.4%. Wynnefield said that without a major capital infusion MusclePharm might not be able to continue as a “going concern” for much longer [current notes and previous coverage of MSLP]
- Rothschild chairman, James Lawrence, is leaving the bank for Jana Partners. He’s also one of the potential nominees that Jana has floated for the ConAgra board.
Stories-
- WSJ has a piece (not necessarily activist related) about hedge funds outstripping the S&P 500 thanks to strong M&A; most notably, John Paulson is back after a couple years “off” [link]
- Aberdeen Asset Management comes out and challenges the Samsung merger that Elliott is opposing. Noting, “It is important to speak out against practices that could be prejudicial to shareholders as a whole” [link]
What we’ve been working on-
- An ode to Kirk Kerkorian part III: MGM [link]
- Diving into Blue Harbour’s newest activist target [full paywall]
- Vertex is on fire right now [full paywall]
