Op-ed: How activist investors are deactivating with proxy battle losses

As this year's proxy season draws to a close, defeat after defeat for activist investors in proxy fights this year – most prominently at– raises the question: Are activist investors increasingly getting de-activated, losing their credibility and power? These self-styled"activist investors" are distinct from the original activists who helped catalyze needed governance reforms two decades back.

Today's activists find themselves under siege on not only their value proposition and credibility, but their entire purpose. Many of today's activist investors are a far cry from the original, heroic crusaders for shareholder value who pioneered the activism space decades ago.

No wonder shareholders are rejecting the approach of these profiteering activists, seemingly understanding that they bring more trouble than they are worth.

Considering their evident inability to buy victory at the ballot box, more activists are bludgeoning their target companies into preemptive settlements, often highly favorable to the activists short of a change in CEO, including at companies such as Macy's, Match, Etsy, Alight, JetBlue and Elanco. In fact, more than half of companies defuse proxy fights through negotiated settlements today,of boards caved into activists in offering preemptive costly settlements 20 years ago.

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