Corporate managers are able to benefit from activist hedge funds

Activist hedge fund managers may feel they face a losing battle in image relations. Mutual funds advocating change in firms are 'white knights' fighting for unit holders, while their hedge funds are short term, profiteering "locusts". Not so, according to Phil Goldstein, head of US activist Bulldog Investors, as some agitating produces mutually beneficial outcomes. Reuters recently reported that Calpers noted investors improve their returns by putting pressure on companies to improve their performance - and that this strategy is likely to spread across the world. "We have engaged with...