The Interloper.
Elliott. Perhaps no other name strikes as much fear into the heart of an underperforming or poorly managed company. For years, Paul Singer and his band of merry men have circled and attacked companies in play, companies in the midst of management overhauls and companies that have performed well below their full potential to take on the bidders and managements and enforce a higher offer price or change in management. All of Elliott’s targets seem to have had a common characteristic – a stock price well below where it should have been. Elliott’s approach is opportunistic and far from friendly, to say the very least. It takes sizeable stakes in companies that are vulnerable and valued by the market at far lower levels than they deserve, and then launches public campaigns and attacks against the company managements, goading them to improve financial performance, sell underperforming divisions or non-core assets, buy back shares, pay more dividends and in extreme cases, ove