DealLawyers.com Blog

This Cleary blog discusses some of the lessons and trends from this year’s activist campaigns and what we might expect for the balance of the year. One of the trends the blog highlights is the prominence of M&A themed campaigns. Here’s an excerpt:

M&A leads the activist agenda so far in 2026. M&A demands appeared in 39 of the 84 campaigns this year, more than double the 19 in the same period last year. That moved M&A from second place, behind governance reform a year ago, to first this year. Governance reform fell slightly as a share of campaigns, slipping to second. Operational demands also rose and now ranks third. As the chart below shows, activists have centered their campaigns on transactional and strategic outcomes, such as calls to sell, spin off, or separate businesses, while continuing to press governance demands as a complementary lever.

The authors attribute the increase to a strengthening M&A market and investor pressure to simplify complex corporate structures, and they expect that both forces will keep M&A demands front and center for activists during the remainder of the year.

– John Jenkins