Activist investors mounted campaigns at a record number of companies globally during the first six months of 2024 but have been less successful in breaking into boardrooms as companies fought back effectively, data from Barclays shows. Recent notable examples include Elliott Investment Management's targeting of Southwest Airlines, while Starboard Value is taking on design software maker Autodesk and Jana Partners is pushing for changes at silicon carbide maker Wolfspeed. The surge in activity may lead to more costly battles between activist shareholders and management over leadership changes, spin-offs and outright sales in the coming months, bankers, lawyers and investors said.
Hurricane Beryl bore down on the southeast Caribbean early Monday as a powerful Category 3 storm after previously becoming the earliest storm of Category 4 strength to form in the Atlantic, fueled by record warm waters. Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia, Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as thousands of people hunkered down in homes and shelters hoping for the best. “It’s going to be terrible,” Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said ahead of the storm as he urged people to stay indoors “and wait this monster out.”
The Liberal Democrat leader urged voters to ‘take a leap of faith’ and back his party on July 4.