Daily Activist Investing May 20: Danaher is a proactive activist

Activist followers, major activist stories and news for May 19 below - recall we’re now on the 24-hour delay. Activist Strategy subs are the only ones getting it day of. Still taking leads at @activiststocks, daily newsletter signup still here and ICYMI the latest newsletter is here.

News-

• ValueAct is now active at Fox, owning 5.5%. Their “demands” are generic. They’ve been building a stake for several quarters now.

• Blum Capital sold off another several thousand in Career Education shares. Their stake is down to 3.3M, compared to 6.6M at the end of 2014. Blum now owns 4.9%.

• Marathon Partners, owning 5.4% of Shutterfly, sent a letter to the board [letter]

Stories-

@AntoineGara at Forbes talks about how the Danaher breakup is the new trend of corporate activism. Key takeaway, “The question is whether corporate maneuvering like Danaher’s $13.6 billion acqui-split actually goes mainstream, or whether there remains a chasm between platform-like stocks such as it, Berkshire, Liberty Media, AB InBev — and plain old large companies that stay a step behind and invite activists” [link]