– Reuters reported that, according to a Barclays report, a record number of activist shareholders launched campaigns at global companies in 2024 as their tactics produced strong returns. Further growth is likely this year. ‘Looking back to 2024, it feels almost as if there was a shareholder revolt,’ said Jim Rossman, global head of shareholder advisory at Barclays.
In 2024, 160 investors such as hedge fund firms pushed companies to make moves including improving strategy and operations or firing CEOs, including 45 who used the strategy for the first time, Barclays said. That’s up more than 18 percent from 135 investors in 2023, which included 31 first timers. The number of campaigns launched last year, 243, surpassed 229 in 2023 but was slightly below the record of 249 in 2018.
Bankers, lawyers and analysts believe more companies will face shareholder attacks in 2025 as last year's returns and expectations for continued equity market strength embolden investors. ‘Investors are no longer willing to sit and wait for promised improvements and are saying, ‘We want the companies where we are invested to change right now,’’ Rossman said.
– According to The Wall Street Journal, companies are bracing for another year of geopolitical uncertainty, with major question marks over President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign policy strategy and broader global tumult, despite some executives’ optimism about the coming year.
Geopolitical concerns remain top of mind amid general global uncertainty, particularly regarding the US-China relationship. Multiple governments around the world have seen turmoil recently, Goldman Sachs CFO Denis Coleman told attendees at a conference last month, citing France, Syria and South Korea. ‘To say that there is geopolitical instability in the world would be a gross understatement,’ he said.
The costs of doing business globally have come to a 10-year high as deglobalization and ‘friend-shoring’ gain momentum, according to an analysis released in November by consulting firm Verisk Maplecroft.
– The WSJ reported that Apple agreed to pay $95 mn to resolve a class-action lawsuit that alleged the company obtained private communications and shared them with third parties without consent through Siri. The plaintiffs alleged that Siri was activated unintentionally and went on to share private discussions overheard by the voice-driven virtual assistant with Apple.
The proposed settlement requires Apple to address the alleged privacy violations by requiring the company to confirm it has permanently deleted individual Siri audio recordings obtained before October 2019 six months after it goes into effect. It also will require the company to publish details explaining to users how they may opt in to a choice to improve Siri. The settlement still requires final court approval.
Apple, which denied wrongdoing, didn’t immediately respond to a WSJ request for comment.
– Allianz said in a recent analysis that the number of cases involving ‘nuclear verdicts,’ a term referring to jury verdicts topping $10 mn, is growing and the verdicts are getting bigger, according to the WSJ’s Risk & Compliance Journal. For victims’ advocates, the large verdicts hold companies accountable but businesses have argued they lead to increased insurance costs that are ultimately passed on to consumers.
Ben Maiden
Ben Maiden is the editor-at-large of Governance Intelligence, an IR Media publication, having joined the company in December 2016. He is based in New York. Ben was previously managing editor of Compliance Reporter, covering regulatory and compliance...
