The New Dealmakers and Dealbreakers: M&A Activism

Shareholder activism continues to be a major feature of the global corporate landscape, with 209 activist campaigns against sizeable companies launched globally in 2019.i While the aggregate number of campaigns is down from the record number set in 2018, activism relating to merger, acquisition, break-up and similar transactional activity has continued to increase, with nearly half of all campaigns in 2019 having an M&A thesis and over half of all capital deployed by activists centered on M&A activism.