This community is intended to discuss Activist Investors and Activist Investor Groups - terms used to describe individuals or groups who use sufficient ownership to lobby public companies to make changes which a board might otherwise resist. This could be in order to improve working conditions, keep jobs domestic rather than exporting overseas, or encourage more environmentally sustainable choices when operating the business.

Activist investor campaigns can also simply focus on maximizing shareholder value, and can be organized by parties who feel the current board is not meeting the fiduciary obligation to shareholders and wants to influence their decisions and practices. Even hedge funds which specialize in the application of public pressure through media partners can be considered activist investors.

Typically, a threshold of 5% ownership of a company must be reached by an individual or a group before they are recognized. This is because 5% is the ownership level which requires public filing through the SEC using a 13D disclosure - and that public filing will require a public response to demands from the incumbent board of directors.