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Shareholder activists kept busy in 2024, mounting upwards of 1,000 public company campaigns globally, according to data from Diligent Market Intelligence.

In a report released this week, New York-based Diligent said there were 1,028 activist investor campaigns worldwide in 2024, more or less flat with the previous year.

In Canada, the number of activist campaigns declined to 57 in 2024 from 73 in 2023, it reported. However, those activists were slightly more successful in gaining board seats, as they had 48 directors elected, up from 44 the previous year.

The opposite trend prevailed in the U.S., the report noted, as the number of shareholder campaigns rose to record highs, with 592 U.S. companies facing activists in 2024, up by 7% from the previous year, and up 16% from 2022. Yet, the number of board seats that activists gained was down slightly to 155 in 2024 from 161 in 2023 and 176 in 2022.

Activists were more successful, however, in ousting underperforming CEOs, the report noted.

Approximately 8% of CEO departures last year came within 12 months of an activist campaign, compared with less than 3% in 2023, according to the report.

“As boards grow impatient to see financial underperformance addressed by management, the number of CEOs who left U.S.-based companies after an activist encounter almost tripled in 2024,” Diligent reported.

Alongside activist-inspired personnel changes, the report noted that governance-related issues — such as calls for increased disclosure, and the adoption of policies related to director independence — topped investors’ demands last year.  

“Investor support for shareholder-sponsored proposals remained strong and especially so for such governance demands, which saw an average 21% backing, followed by those related to remuneration at 17.5%,” Diligent said.

Additionally, the report noted that short-seller activism was down slightly in 2024, with 102 campaigns taking place globally, down from 110 in 2023. 

Just three Canadian companies faced short activist campaigns last year, marking the fourth straight year of declining short activism.

Most of the short activity was focused in the U.S., the report said, with tech companies and financial services firms as the primary target of these efforts.

Looking ahead, the report indicated that shareholder activists are expected to shift their focus toward mergers and acquisitions in 2025, amid an expected rise in global dealmaking in 2025.