Posted on Dec. 2020 at 17:29
Activist investors who are discovering the technological bump? It was about time, given the general acceleration of digital uses in 2020. William Ackman launched a SPAC vehicle to accommodate “unicorns” in need of listing. Daniel Loeb is not left out. While launching a “venture capital” fund, he shakes up Intel’s chips. Even if its zeal has been more exercised in the world of consumption, industry, even insurance, Wall Street is not going to be alarmed by a skills deficit. The stock market puzzle is the same everywhere when growth is no longer there. The billion dollars bet by its Third Point fund _environ 0.5% of the capital_, allows it to be taken seriously by the “board”. After its solo fall, the stock is the worst valued sector of “seedlings” _ about three times sales_, apart from Samsung Electronics, the Korean chaebol. However, the diagnosis of weaknesses and solutions does not seem very original. The use of third-party foundries was already on the table. It would be a historic leap for the old integrated model (design and manufacture), nothing to do with a rotation of activity portfolios as at Nestlé, which was one of the activist’s flagship targets. And the latter does not only vibrate the cord of value creation for shareholders. He also brandishes the technological risk for Uncle Sam, if the leading firms are all found in East Asia, a “geopolitically unstable” area, even if it means making the problem more complex. He probably hopes in this way to underline the urgency of delivering solutions in gestation.
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