Times Online- The modern activist shareholder seems to be turning Theodore Roosevelt\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s maxim \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cSpeak softly and carry a big stick\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 on its head. A man with a big mouth and a Derringer is not goingto stop an army in its tracks but obscure investors with 1 per cent \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 or less \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 of a company\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s stock are setting the agenda for a clutch of giant companies.<\/p>\n
It seems absurd that John Mayo, the former deputy chief executive of Marconi, has any right to be telling Arun Sarin how to run his business but, with a 0.0004 per cent stake in Vodafone, he has forced the mobile telecommunications group\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s chief executive to defend its debt structure and reconsider the sale of its US business.<\/p>\n
It is extraordinary that The Children\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s Investment Fund, which owns about 1 per cent of ABN Amro, has, in effect, put the Dutch bank up for sale. Nelson Peltz took a 3 per cent shareholding in Cadbury Schweppes and forced a break-up of the company. And Atticus Capital has taken ownership of 1 per cent of Barclays and told it to drop its bid for ABN.<\/p>\n