The quiet death of a Canadian success story

Sentinelle Medical was a cutting edge manufacturer of MRI technology based in Toronto. It was spun out from the Sunnybrook Research Institute where its technology had been developed with a combination of public and private investment. It was an innovative leader in the field of MRI technology used in breast cancer screening.

In 2010 the promising upstart was bought out by American health-care tech conglomerate Hologic for $85 millions. Sentinelle remained a largely independent entity within Hologic and kept its operations in Toronto.

In November of 2013 so-called "activist investor" Carl Icahn bought 34 million shares in Hologic, which gave the hedge fund tycoon about 12% of the company. He promised to shake things up to "unlock shareholder value," which is another way of saying he was going to slash and burn whatever he could to goose the share price and make himself wealthier. Apparently the one thing billionaires never have enough of is money.

How Icahn and his ilk can pull off their rapacious plundering with relatively minor stock positions isn't that much of a mystery. The business press tends to portray "unlocking shareholder value" as an altruistic public service, regardless of how much damage is done to the company, its employees, and the communities they are a part of. As in the case of the Ackman takeover of CP Rail, accomplished with a mere 10% ownership position, the other shareholders tend to shut up and go along for the ride.

The new Icahn installed board of directors at Hologic deemed Sentinelle to be insufficiently lucrative, and by late 2014 Sentinelle found itself in the hands of Inviro, the health and wellness division of Philips, the Dutch multi-national of light-bulb fame.

The Toronto operations were promptly shuttered, throwing the Canadian employees out of work.

At least they can take comfort in the fact that Mr. Icahn did indeed unlock shareholder value; his holding in Hologic is worth about $500 millions more today than when he bought in a year and a half ago.

Carl Icahn Apple play reveals extent of dementia

Carl is getting on in years, God love him.

And, not to put too fine a point on it, but he's kinda let things slip and slide a bit these last few years.

He's playing the "activist investor" card again. It's worked before and it might work this time.

He's taken a relatively small position in Apple and therefore presumes that he can dictate to Cook and company what's best for Icahn's share position.

If Apple would only use its cash hoard to buy up even more Apple shares, Carl's Apple stake would vastly appreciate! He's confident that the shares he's bought in the low 400's could go to $700!

That's the way of American capitalism today; Icahn brings utterly nothing to Apple, but fully believes that his billionaire status and reputation as a bully should dictate corporate strategy at the ailing computer giant.

Sooner or later a corporate board will find the balls to tell these "activist investor" types to go fuck themselves.

The sooner the better.

"Activist investors" pee on rug at Tim Hortons

Those "activist investors" are at it again, this time hoping to shake down the venerable Canadian donut chain for a few easy millions.

I wish the media big-boys would drop the "activist investor" bullshit and call it like it is. These aren't activist investors, they're opportunistic shit-bag hedge fund managers looking for an easy score.

The reason they keep doing it is because it keeps working. Bill Ackman made his hedge crew a couple of billions with a relatively small stake in CP Rail.

Einhorn and company took a run at the Apple cash hoard with a similarly insignificant share position.

Why do the management types cave to this kind of blackmail?

I think it all has to do with where the MBA grads get hired. All your top guns from schools like Wharton go to the hedge funds. The guys from the fringe schools go into public service.

There's a vast pool of graduates from the middle tier who end up in the corporate sector. Secretly they all wish they worked at the hedge funds. That's because at Tim Hortons or Apple a middle management MBA can make a really good dollar...

But at a hedge fund they can get stinking filthy rich really fast!

That's why when the hedgies come a calling, the management guys at these target companies just smile and bend over.

Apple leaves tech innovation behind to focus on balance-sheet innovation

What would Steve Jobs think of the Apple bond issue?

Apple's $17 billion bond issue seems like an unnecessarily convoluted method of getting some of the cash horde "into the hands of the shareholders."

Although I suppose the fees earned by Goldman Sachs will quiet some of the squeakiest wheels clamoring for that cash.

Why does Tim Cook think this is a good idea? When you're sitting on 150 billions, you don't need to give a shit what the shareholders think.

Or what the self-dealing opportunists at GS think.

Focus on making great product, not keeping those so-called activist investors placated.