Shareholder activists have always been a thorn in the side of companies. Today, however, thanks to the Internet, they are a sharper and more potent thorn than ever before.
What particularly pangs companies is the casual manner in which some of these activists have been able to gain recognition toward their causes; online tools, such as e-mail, blogs, video Websites, and electronic shareholder forums have all made activist campaigns much more well-organized and visible forces to be reckoned with.
