BP, Mattel, Samsung, Norfolk Southern, Disney, Etsy — the news is full of moves by activist investors to press for change at public companies where they have a stake. That’s because activity by these investors picked up substantially in 2023. Globally, 252 such campaigns launched, up 7% over the prior year, according to investment banking firm Lazard. While campaigns launched in the United States slowed slightly, Europe and Asia picked up the slack. European companies saw a record 69...

While all eyes are on the equity markets, credit is the lifeblood of corporations. Which companies are facing headwinds? The “recession is already here,” blared a Standard & Poor’s press release on Tuesday morning. “The initial data from China suggests that its economy was hit far harder than projected, though a tentative stabilization has begun,” said S&P Global’s chief economist Paul Gruenwald. “Europe and the U.S. are following a similar path, as increasing restrictions on person-to-person...

Mortgages represent the lion’s share of household debt, so the mortgage industry may play a critical part in seeing consumers through the COVID-19 pandemic. But mortgage bankers and nonbank mortgage providers are worried that the $2 trillion stimulus package passed by the House of Representatives on Friday will harm originators and the mortgage supply chain. In particular, they said mortgage servicers (the companies that collect and credit monthly loan payments) are in danger of seeing their...

Is this the year the straw breaks the camel’s back? Each year, it seems as if finance is asked to do more with less. This year will be no different, according to the 2020 Finance Key Issues research from The Hackett Group. Most finance executives expect to see a 3.4% decline, on average, in finance’s operating budget. At the same, other parts of the organization continue to expect finance to provide more value to them. The five biggest enterprise “asks” of finance in 2020, all of which were...