For an audio version of the newsletter, click here.

A little like the epic cantina bar scene in Star Wars, but swap the lightsabers for whitepapers, dealmakers, issuers and activists will meet under one roof next week at Ken Squire's annual 13D Active-Passive confab to hear which companies are being targeted and what new investment ideas prominent activists have come up with. 

Advisors will be watching closely as the household name activists unveil new positions. Activists speaking include Starboard’s Jeff Smith, Sachem Head’s Scott Ferguson, JANA Partners’ Scott Ostfeld along with Lauren Taylor Wolfe of Impactive Capital. We expect CNBC’s David Faber to be holding court and interviewing the participants.

Some of the biggest names are already making moves. The FT revealed that Starboard has amassed a large stake in Keurig Dr Pepper following the company’s planned $15 billion acquisition of JDE Peet’s, while Bloomberg reported that Elliott is raising and readying to deploy a new $7 billion war chest. We suspect it will be a very active spring proxy season for companies and their advisors.

And since it is gala season, GPP has also been trading white-collar activism for black-tie philanthropy. In recent weeks, GPPers have attended the annual galas for a trio of organizations doing inspiring work across New York City and beyond:

• Exhale to Inhale: Providing trauma-informed, body-based yoga and healing to empower survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault to ensure every survivor has access to long-term healing and can feel comfortable in their own bodies.

• Teens for Food Justice: Tackling local food insecurity and food deserts across the city by building and investing in youth-led hydroponic farming, creating a food-secure future as well as local, sustainably-grown produce for all New Yorkers.

• Jeremiah Program Brooklyn: Breaking the cycle of poverty for single mothers and their children, two generations at a time, through education, housing and career support for single mothers.

GPP is proud to support and champion these incredible organizations and the lasting impact they have every day on the communities they serve. We encourage our readers to click the links above to learn more about their programs and how to get involved.

Finally, we hope to see you at our welcome cocktail party (Monday, October 27^th at International Smoke) that will be the “official” kick off of the 2025 Berkeley Fall Forum on Corporate Governance in San Francisco. If you’re interested in attending, please RSVP at events@gladstoneplace.com.

Have a great weekend,

GPP Team

Lazard: Q3 25 Shareholder Activism Highlights

Lazard notes that U.S. activism surged in Q3 2025, which 42 new campaigns marketing the most active third quarter in a decade Read More. Lazard’s Chris Couvelier also joined The Deal’s podcast to discuss record activism levels, a surge in M&A-driven campaigns and emerging retail “robo-voting” systems like Exxon’s, noting their potential to reshape shareholder engagement and activism defense strategies. Listen Here

Wachtell: Shareholder Activism: Ten Trends for 2026

The memo by David Katz, Elina Tetelbaum and Loren Braswell emphasizes that shareholder activism is increasingly expanding beyond proxy season, driven by factors such as M&A-focused campaigns, private nominations and the growing use of AI. They emphasize the need for companies to proactively prepare for activist engagement. Read More

Barron’s: Top Novavax Shareholder Demands Company’s Sale

Shah Capital, Novavax’s second-largest shareholder, has urged the biotech company’s board to pursue a sale, citing lagging COVID-19 vaccine sales and stock performance despite having the only approved non-mRNA shot in the U.S. Read More

Bloomberg: BlackRock, MGX Make $40 Billion Bet on AI Boom With Aligned Data Centers Deal

BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners announced one of its largest infrastructure investments ever with the purchase of Texas-based data center company Aligned Data Centers. The deal, which has an investment from Mubadala-backed MGX, will be the asset manager’s largest bet to date on the AI boom. Read More

The Wall Street Journal: Two of the Biggest U.S. Timberland Owners Strike Deal to Combine

Rayonier and PotlatchDeltic, timber companies that are structured as REITs and are two of the biggest U.S. timberland owners, announced a merger of equals earlier this week with the all-stock transaction valuing the combined entity at $8.2 billion. The move, which is expected to close in 2026, creates one of the U.S.’s largest private landowners with a combined ownership of 4.2 million acres of US timberland. Read More

Bloomberg: Lone Star Buys Hillenbrand in $3.8 Billion Deal

Private equity firm Lone Star has agreed to acquire Hillenbrand in an all-cash transaction. The plastic parts and equipment maker will be taken private after the deal closes by the end of the first quarter of next year. Read More

The Wall Street Journal: Opinion: Great News: A Proxy Adviser Retreats

The Journal’s editorial board praises Glass Lewis’ announcement that it will no longer provide its “house view” on proxy votes beginning in 2027, writing the proxy advisor’s update is a win for competition and better corporate governance. Read More

The New York Times: Long Battle Over Elon Musk’s Pay Moves Closer to a Resolution

Delaware’s Court of Chancery returned to the spotlight this week as Delaware’s Supreme Court looks set to rule soon on reinstating Elon Musk’s previously blocked 2018 mega pay-package from Tesla, which prompted the automaker and other companies to reincorporate in other states. Read More

Freshfields: SEC Chairman Offers Companies Way to Short Circuit Shareholder Proposals

Freshfields comments on SEC Chairman Paul Atkins’ recent comments suggesting the organization would grant No-Action Letter relief to companies looking to exclude non-binding shareholder proposals from their proxies, particularly proposals related to ESG. Read More

A Walk Down Memory Lane: The Evolution of the Poison Pill

Robert Anderson from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville – School of Law discusses the history and evolution of the Poison Pill. Read More

IPO

Financial Times: Strava Plots Wall Street Debut as Running Boom Boosts Fitness App

Last valued at $2. billion in a round led by Sequoia, the exercise tracking app is now planning to launch an IPO amidst a surge in daily active users taking up running. The SF-based company has considered elevating its premium offerings while operating neck-and-neck with athletics giant Garmin. Read More

CNBC: Nscale Eyes IPO Amid Fresh $14 Billion Deal with Microsoft

London-based Nscale, who provides technology infrastructure to help artificial intelligence scale, shared in conversations with CNBC and the Financial Times that it is looking at an IPO, potentially next year. The move comes as the firm announced a multi-billion expansion of a deal with Microsoft that will help growth. Read More

Reuters: Beta Technologies Aims for $7.22 Billion Valuation in US IPO

Beta Technologies, an electric aircraft maker based in Vermont, announced in a regulatory filing that it plans to raise up to $825 million by offering 25 million shares as part of a potential upcoming IPO. The company, who designs, manufactures and sells these aircrafts as part of its business, has backing from cornerstone investors such as GE Aerospace, BlackRock and AllianceBernstein. Read More

FROM OUR DESK TO YOURS

Who doesn’t love an encore? Readers know that the GPP team are massive fans of the theater and there is no better city than New York to enjoy it. We often even venture beyond Broadway and we recently saw “Oratorio for Living Things” at the Signature Theatre.

The encore, which originally premiered by Ars Nova at its Greenwich House theater in 2022, was written by Heather Christian and directed by Obie Award-winning director Lee Sunday Evans. Heather Christian, who just received a “Genius Grant” from the MacArthur Foundation, is a composer and playwright who takes audiences on a powerful journey through time in her “profoundly strange and overwhelmingly beautiful” music-theater piece. This immersive, 90-minute experience offers an intimate portrayal that offers audiences a glimpse into history and time as the music and compact stage makes you feel like part of the show (with Christian herself noting that it is designed to be thought-provoking with different takeaways for each audience member – so you really have to experience it for yourself to best understand!).

Christian is the latest in a long line of storytellers who have showcased their work at the Signature Theatre. From Branden Jacobs-Jenkins to Dominique Morisseau to Arthur Miller to Signature’s first resident playwright, Romulus Linney, Signature Theatre has offered a space for all since it was founded in 1991. With Signature’s artists having received more than 100 awards, including the first New York City Regional Theater Tony Award in 2014, the theater offers audiences extraordinary experiences from living playwrights.

Let us know if you have been or if there are other off-Broadway theaters you have visited and loved! We are always on the lookout for the next best show, so we welcome suggestions!

PEOPLE MOVES

• First Brands CEO steps down after auto lender fender benders creditors. Read More
• Former Becton Dickinson CFO Christopher DelOrefice is appointed as Ulta Beauty’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Read More
• Virgin Atlantic CFO Corneel Koster will succeed Shai Weiss as Chief Executive Officer. Read More

• October 21: 13D Monitor Active/Passive Investor Summit, New York, NY
• October 28-29: Berkeley Fall Forum on Corporate Governance, San Francisco
• October 28: Knight-Bagehot 50^th Anniversary Celebration, New York, NY
• November 21: Columbia Law School’s Millstein Center Conference on M&A and Corporate Governance, New York, NY

Follow us on LinkedIn Gladstone Place Partners

Please feel free to forward this along.

Gladstone Place Partners | (212) 230-5930 | gladstoneplace.com

STAY CONNECTED