Hedge funds Bullying tactics

How should boards respond when hedge funds try to bully them? This is an increasingly common tactic. Woolworths, for example, is being pushed by Elliott Associates to sell itself or disgorge large amounts of capital after the UK retailer was jilted by a private equity firm. Meanwhile, in the US last week, Kerr-McGee, a $12bn oil company, was forced to break itself up by Carl Icahn, the hedge fund raider. It is pretty clear that boards shouldn’t just dismiss demands from investors out of hand – h...