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** Readers, a friendly reminder there is still time to take our 2026 Tulane Market Survey **

As the East Coast finally emerges out of the snow, activists are turning their attention to proxy season.

Warmer weather is clearly on the minds of Starboard Value and Elliott Management as they dialed up the pressure in travel companies Tripadvisor and Norwegian Cruise Line, respectively. Both activists have made waves with letters that indicate plans to push for board seats – and each has an interesting twist that caught our eye.

Starboard this week upped the ante at Tripadvisor: Jeff Smith’s fund revealed plans to nominate a majority slate for election at the Board, according to a letter to the travel site operator that calls for them to explore a sale of the company. Tripadvisor quickly responded, noting that they have “held numerous discussions with Starboard to listen to their views,” and that the company has taken recent steps to drive shareholder value including realigning its operating model around experiences. Ben Glickman, of The Wall Street Journal, noted that it is relatively rare for an activist to go after the majority of a board – the last time Starboard did it was back in the Obama years at Darden Restaurants.

Meanwhile, Elliott Management has set its sights on the high seas with a letter, presentation and newly announced 10% stake in Norwegian Cruise Line. There are also a few noteworthy dynamics here. Beyond the notable size of the stake – and lack of prior contact with the company before it was revealed – Elliott also has a former competitor along for the voyage in Adam Goldstein, former CEO of Royal Caribbean. As a part of Elliott’s rollout, Goldstein penned an op-ed for Fortune this week confirming his partnership with Elliott. This new situation is all the more interesting as it comes barely a week into John Chidsey’s tenure as CEO.

We will wait and see how these two situations continue to evolve. One thing is for certain: as winter winds down, proxy season heats up.

Have a great weekend,

GPP Team

Financial Times: Japan’s largest toilet maker is undervalued AI play, says activist investor

UK-based investor Palliser Capital told Toto last week to capitalize more on its advanced ceramics segment for semiconductor manufacturing, predicting that Toto’s shares could rise more than 55% if it also sold cross-shareholdings and used cash more efficiently. Read More

The Wall Street Journal: Activist Jana Builds Stake in Payments Business Fiserv

Jana Partners has built a stake in the fintech company amid talks to boost Fiserv’s share price, with the activist supporting CEO Mike Lyons and his new strategic plans. Read More

Bloomberg: Starboard Urges Bitcoin Miner Riot to Speed Up Shift to Data Centers

Amid macroeconomic headwinds affecting the crypto markets, the shareholder activist has called on the company to consider a shift to data centers with Riot’s two core sites in Dallas and Austin as two of the best US locations for operating computing centers. Read More



Paramount and WBD Plan to Talk as Merger Saga Continues

On Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it will restart deal talks with Paramount after it was indicated that Paramount would up its offer to $31 per share just to engage in negotiations. Reuters reported that the new Paramount bid was rejected – and as the company set March 20 as a Special Meeting date for the Netflix merger – but that they remain open to a new, “final” offer. Meanwhile, Netflix granted WBD a seven-day waiver to reopen deal talks with Paramount with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos saying in a CNBC interview that it was time to give shareholders clarity and for Paramount to “make a move.”

Financial Times: Danaher Strikes $10B Deal for Medical Device Maker Masimo

In a continuation of deals in the life sciences space, Danaher announced that it will acquire pulse ox company Masimo in a culmination of the company's journey two years after activist Politan Management overhauled the Masimo board. Read More

The Wall Street Journal: Steel Dynamics, SGH Raise BlueScope Steel Takeover Bid to $11 Billion

U.S. steelmaker Steel Dynamics and Australian conglomerate SGH have raised their bid for BlueScope Steel in a sweetened offer that will remain at these levels unless a rival bidder emerges. Read More

The Wall Street Journal: IHS Towers Agrees to Be Bought by MTN Group for $6.2 Billion

The all-cash deal represents a 36% premium to the company’s one-year weighted average share price, according to the telecommunications company, and is expected to close within the year. Read More



Beyond Unprecedented: Season 5 – The Post-Pandemic Economy – is Out Now

Produced by Columbia Law School and the Ira M. Millstein Center and co-hosted by Law School professors Eric Talley and Dorothy Lund, the fifth season of this spectacular podcast has debuted. Its inaugural episode features Guggenheim Securities Co-Chairman Jim Millstein – Ira Millstein’s son – in a conversation that explores the motivations behind, and ramifications of, the federal government’s recent private sector equity investments as well as U.S.-brokered third-party investments with other countries. Listen Here

The Wall Street Journal: Companies Are Replacing CEOs in Record Numbers—and They’re Getting Younger

After record CEO turnover – about one CEO in nine was replaced in 2025 across 1,500 of the biggest publicly traded companies – a survey from Spencer Stuart noted that this was highest level of transitions since 2010 with a majority of transitions involving younger, internal hires who are first time CEOs, which could illustrate a trend for years to come. Read More

Bloomberg: MSG Sports Considering Spinning Off New York Knicks, Rangers

With both professional sports teams being valued at a higher level than the combined public company, MSG’s board of directors approved a plan to explore splitting the two teams in a move that could make each team a standalone publicly traded company. Read More

The Wall Street Journal: NAPA Owner Genuine Parts Plans to Split Into Two Companies

After a review of its operational and strategic value initiatives, the owner of NAPA auto-care centers has announced that it will separate its auto and industrial parts business into two companies that it expects the split to be completed in the first quarter of 2027. Read More



IPO

Fortune: Exclusive: Kraken acquires token manager Magna as crypto exchange prepares for IPO

The crypto exchange has announced its sixth deal of the past year with the acquisition of the token management platform as a part of Kraken’s efforts to build its product list ahead of a potential IPO in 2026. Read More

Bloomberg: Robinhood’s $1 Billion Fund Pitches Pre-IPO Stock as Next Craze

As a part of industry-wide efforts to give U.S. retail investors access to private companies, Robinhood is hoping to raise $1 billion for a closed-end fund IPO that hopes to capitalize on excitement of exciting IPO candidates such as SpaceX and Databricks. Read More

The Information: OpenAI Is Finalizing First Commitments for $100 Billion Mega Round

A potential new funding round – with investments from companies such as Amazon, SoftBank, Nvidia and Microsoft – could push the valuation of the privately held AI company to close to $850 billion as the company considers an IPO and attempts to build out its AI tools. Read More



FROM OUR DESK TO YOURS

Tuesday marked the beginning of the Lunar New Year, and for the first time in 60 years, the Year of the Fire Horse, which symbolizes intense, rapid transformation and bold action.

Speaking of bold and expressive flavors, if you’re looking for a potential lunch or dinner spot to belatedly celebrate the New Year, look no further than Blue Willow. Located in Midtown on 55^th Street and 5^th Avenue, the locale serves delicious family-style Hunan and Sichuan dishes inspired by the “golden era” of Old Shanghai, when it was known as the “Paris of the East” in the 1920s. On top of their excellent Peking Duck – perfect for sharing with a large group – we strongly recommend the Mapo Tofu, hand-pulled Dan Dan noodles, soup dumplings, Chairman Mao’s braised pork and trying out drinks from their full apothecary-style bar.

For those brave enough to trek across the East River and deal with the Long Island City’s infamous gusts of wind, we also suggest trying out their sister restaurant Red Sorghum, which is famous for their Baijiu-infused cocktails – a spirit made from sorghum grain – and all the Sichuan wontons, Chongqing braised beef, peppercorn fish stew and Mala dry pot dishes you can stomach. 

PEOPLE MOVES

• David Nemecek, who helped develop Kirkland & Ellis’ liability management practice, is departing the firm to join Simpson Thacher. Read More
• European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will leave her position ahead of its expiration in October 2027, opening the role for nomination before the French presidential election. Read More
• Match Group announced that Manuel Bronstein, Advisor and former Chief Product Officer at Roblox, and Raina Moskowitz, CEO at The Knot Worldwide, are expected to join the Company's board at the 2026 Annual Meeting. Read More

• February 25: The Conference Board’s 2026 Proxy Season Preview – New York, NY
• March 3-4: Bloomberg Invest – New York, NY 
• March 6: University of Delaware’s 2026 Corporate Governance Symposium – Newark, DE
• March 19-20: Tulane Corporate Law Institute – New Orleans, LA 
• April 13-17: Semafor World Economy – Washington D.C. 



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