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Dow + DuPont = ?
When I read that Dow Chemical Company and DuPont were under pressure to speedily agree to the details of their proposed mega-merger to avoid intervention by activists, for a brief moment hope glimmered that the activists, who have argued that Dow (which took over Union Carbide in 2001) should face its acquired responsibility for those maimed and poisoned by Union Carbide in Bhopal in 1984 and since, were finally having some impact on the company. But, as I read on, it quickly became clear that the activists the corporations feared were in fact activist-investors.
When I read that Dow Chemical Company and DuPont were under pressure to speedily agree to the details of their proposed mega-merger to avoid intervention by activists, for a brief moment hope glimmered that the activists, who have argued that Dow (which took over Union Carbide in 2001) should face its acquired responsibility for those maimed and poisoned by Union Carbide in Bhopal in 1984 and since, were finally having some impact on the company. But, as I read on, it quickly became clear that the activists the corporations feared were in fact activist-investors.
These particular activist-investors are a different kind of animal and represent a particular fraction of the owners of capital who have been a major influence on corporate mergers and acquisition decisions over recent years. Corporate managements across a wide range of industries are now running scared of these activists’ interventions.
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