According to press reports, a series of recent, unrelated events may deal a big blow to the activist investor movement.
In just the past few weeks, Sean Harrigan was ousted as president of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System; Roy Disney and Stanley Gold decided not to further pursue their aggressive tactics toward Walt Disney; TIAA-CREF disclosed it was being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible auditor independence violations involving two former trustees; reports began to surface that William Donaldson would be replaced at the SEC; and New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer—who has almost single-handedly altered the way the financial services industry operates—has decided to run for New York governor.
