Diligent Market Intelligence Advisor Awards 2024

Diligent Market Intelligence (DMI) profiles the most prolific law and proxy solicitation firms in the activism space. The latest edition includes representations from 16 proxy solicitation firms and 82 law firms.

In the U.S., almost 170 companies were subject to demands led by primary-and partial-focus activists, a 12% increase compared to 12 months prior, with efforts concentrated on succession planning, improving governance and operational changes. Settlements remained steady, litigation was heavy, and boards should get ready for more M&A demands in 2025, with dealmaking emerging as a key theme in the last quarter of the year.

Elsewhere, Europe and the U.K. continued to draw activists to companies where valuations are seen as significantly lower than their U.S. or global peers with many pushing their targets to redomicile to other jurisdictions or unify
corporate structures.

In Asia, activists focused on Japan and South Korea pushed their targets on measures to unlock value with demands influenced by regulatory changes and moves to attract foreign institutional capital.

2025 is already looking like a busy year for activism, with some big campaigns announced in the off-season and interest rate and policy changes likely to create dislocations in the market.