International Herald Tribune – In the last year, hedge funds and deep-pocketed individual investors have been cajoling management at many large companies to buy back shares, increase dividends or take other steps to bolster shareholder value.
The billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, for example, who amassed a large stake in General Motors, is lobbying for a board seat there. And Carl C. Icahn, the 1980’s-era corporate raider turned shareholder activist, has been harrying management at companies like Blockbuster and Kerr-McGee. Mr. Icahn has directed his wrath most loudly at the media conglomerate Time Warner, which he once said was run by “morons.”
For the most part, mutual funds – the investment vehicle of choice for most investors – have historically avoided shareholder activism, and most still do. But a handful recently have joined hedge funds and other investors on the corporate barricades.
The Mutual Series Funds, a unit of Franklin Templeton Investments, has a long history of shareholder activism. In the mid-1990’s, its founder, Michael F. Price, pushed Chase Manhattan to merge with Chemical Bank. Today, Mutual Series, which manages about $45 billion, is making common cause with Mr. Icahn and other hedge funds in pushing for action at Time Warner, albeit in gentler terms.
