DealLawyers.com Blog

August 11, 2016

How Jeff Ubben Works

Here’s the intro from this blog by “The Activist Investor”:

Smart PMs learn from others, including other activist investors. To this end, previously we profiled the investment strategies of Carl Icahn, Nelson Peltz, and Bill Ackman. Jeff Ubben, founder of ValueAct Capital, also makes for a worthwhile subject. He’s had his share of news coverage, both recently (Valeant) and over the years (Microsoft). He became the subject of a high-profile and potentially precedent-setting antitrust lawauit. He’s also been the subject of extensive profiles, which provide all manner of interesting detail about his career and firm.

What we haven’t see yet is, an analysis of his investment strategy. We reviewed his 82 activist projects since founding ValueAct in 2000, from the invaluable SharkRepellent database, to develop some insights. We find an activist investing hedge fund that acts as much like a private equity fund as any other we’ve seen. ValueAct orchestrates deals behind the scenes, with targeted board membership through substantial ownership positions in portfolio companies.