Sullivan & Cromwell LLP Logo
  • Home
  • Lawyers
  • Practices
  • Insights
  • About
  • Careers
  • Alumni
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  •  icon
  • Podcasts icon
© 2025 Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
    • Home
    • Lawyers
    • Practices
    • Insights
    • About
    • Careers
    • Alumni
    Home /  Insights /  Memos, Newsletters And Alerts /  Memo
    S&C Memos

    2022 U.S. Shareholder Activism and Activist Settlement Agreements

    Full Memo
    • Related Practices
    December 13, 2022

    Key Themes: (1) Aided by record-breaking Q1 activity, overall activism activity in 2022 has returned to pre-pandemic levels despite continued macroeconomic uncertainty and market volatility; (2) Activist focus areas have shifted in response to underlying market conditions and stakeholder expectations, leading to an increase in campaigns targeting corporate strategies and operations, management changes and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues; (3) Companies have demonstrated their willingness to defend against activist campaigns, resulting in an uptick in the adoption of rights plans and a decrease in the board seats obtained by activists; (4) Companies and activists also reached fewer settlements and took longer to do so than in prior years; (5) Looking ahead to 2023, continued macroeconomic uncertainty, the universal proxy rules and other regulatory changes are expected to impact activism campaigns and companies’ responses to them.

    Read More
    Stay Updated

    Subscribe to stay current on S&C Insights.

    Related Practices

    • Environmental Litigation
    • Environmental Transactions
    • Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    Sullivan & Cromwell LLP Logo
    • Twitter icon
    • LinkedIn icon
    • RSS Feed icon
    • Podcasts icon
    • Home
    • Contact Us
    • Information Policy Relating to Cookies
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Website Notice
    • Attorney Advertising Notice
    © 2025 Sullivan & Cromwell LLP