ACTIVISM, HOSTILE M&A AND OTHER CORPORATE CRISES: PREPARING FOR A RAID IN TIMES OF TURBULENCE
Public companies and their boards today face an environment ripe for intervention by activist hedge funds, short sellers, unsolicited bidders and other threat actors.
Rapid and substantial regulatory and economic policy changes, geopolitical shifts and generative artificial intelligence-related disruption, among other factors, have contributed to significant market volatility and, for some companies, meaningfully depressed forecasts and stock prices.
However, volatility and uncertainty also present unique opportunities for corporate leaders to press advantages, further differentiate from peers and make their companies harder targets.
This article discusses how companies can strengthen their defences, mitigate risk and ultimately best position themselves for a dynamic market and regulatory environment.
Activism and hostile M&A trends
The level of activist activity remains persistently high and did not abate during the volatile first half of 2025. According to data from Bloomberg, activists launched on average nearly 350 campaigns at US public companies per year over the past five years.
While some investors temporarily hit ‘pause’ on making large new investments in light of recent market uncertainty, others saw opportunities to invest in high-quality companies at attractive valuations. To that end, the first half of 2025 continued the pace of recent years, with activists launching 177 campaigns (matching the total from the first half of 2024).
These figures materially understate the true level of activist activity because they do not include the numerous instances of private engagements with activists that are not subsequently made public. Taken together, in practice almost 10 percent of US public companies face shareholder activism in any given year.
Oct-Dec 2025 issue
Kirkland & Ellis LLP