Impact of Shareholder Activism on Target Companies — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

Instructions

Student presentations must have a faculty sponsor.

Abstracts must include a title and a description of the research, scholarship, or creative work. The description should be 150-225 words in length and constructed in a format or style appropriate for the presenter’s discipline.

The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

A clear statement of the problem or question you pursued, or the scholarly goal or creative theme achieved in your work.
A brief comment about the significance or uniqueness of the work.
A clear description of the methods used to achieve the purpose or goals for the work.
A statement of the conclusions, results, outcomes, or recommendations, or if the work is still in progress, the results you expect to report at the event.

Presenter photographs should be head and shoulder shots comparable to passport photos.

Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

Impact of Shareholder Activism on Target Companies

Name: Linda Muita
Major: Finance
Hometown: Nairobi, Kenya
Faculty Sponsor:
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: SURE

Abstract

IMPACT OF SHAREHOLDER ACTIVIST ON TARGET COMPANIES

The finance field is very broad with different aspects of the study. Hedge fund activism is one of the sectors that is widely discussed and fundamentally important. My study was based on the need for further understanding of the topic and clarification of the effect that hedge funds have on the affected companies.

Hedge funds use methods such as activist campaigns, proxy fights and wolf pack formation that strengthen them. They bring an external, uncompromising perspective to a company’s “strategic” options. They push companies to make a more disciplined use of cash and capital and

also act on the incontrovertible premise that shareholders are the “owners” of the company and therefore their interests should take precedence in the management of the company. Shareholder activists mostly target smaller companies because they are easier to attack and it may be easier to take advantage of them unlike large companies. However, there have been recent cases where Hedge funds have been bold and attacked large companies including Apple, Uber and Herbalife. This work is still ongoing and I intend to research deeper and into more specific aspects of the topic in the future.

Poster file