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20-574: Starboard Value began as part of Ramius Capital in 2002. Peter Feld joined Smith and Mitchell in 2005. Starboard Value merged with the Cowen Group in 2008, and was Cowen's hedge-fund until 2011, when it went independent. Smith, Mitchell, and Feld all stayed with Starboard. Starboard has a five-member board of directors. As of February 2019, the five directors were John Leonard, chief executive officer of Intellia Therapeutics ; Jeffrey Smith, Starboard's own chief executive officer; Janet Vergis, chairman of

40-472: A "brilliantly executed campaign" involving "withering public criticism" of the firm's leadership and "careful courtship" of its major shareholders, Smith effectively took control of Darden Restaurants , a Fortune 500 company that owns Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse . Among Smith's criticisms was that the pasta at Olive Garden was inadequately salted. On the HBO program Last Week Tonight , host John Oliver did

60-592: A 9.9% stake in Cars.com , which it considered to be undervalued and potentially salable. In August 2018, Starboard Value disclosed that it had accumulated a 5.8% stake in Symantec and had nominated five directors to Symantec's board. Symantec responded that it was evaluating the Starboard nominations and had not yet scheduled its 2018 Annual Meeting. In September 2018, Symantec announced that three nominees of Starboard were joining

80-477: A handful of times in the past few years has an activist managed to replace an entire board of directors, and never at a company the size of Darden." After Starboard took over Darden, its stock went up by almost 60%. From 2002 to 2014, Starboard generated annualized returns of 15.5%. Fully 84% of its activist campaigns have been profitable. Since 2004, Starboard has replaced over 80 directors on about 30 boards. Cowen Group TD Cowen (formerly Cowen Inc. ),

100-526: A judge agreed with the FTC's verdict. In November 2017, Starboard Value took a 10.7% stake in Mellanox Technologies , an Israeli semiconductor firm. Asserting that Mellanox was spending too much on research and development and other expenses, Starboard urged the company to improve its margins. In January 2018, Starboard Value tried to remove the entire Mellanox board. In December 2017, Starboard Value bought

120-552: A three-minute comedy bit based on Starboard's presentation. As of February 1, 2018, it had been seen by nearly four million viewers. While owning less than 10% of the firm, Smith replaced the entire board and became Darden's chairman. By doing so, wrote Cohan, Smith "fired a shot over the bows of directors everywhere," informing them that shareholders were now in the ascendant, and "managers ignore them at their peril." According to Cohan, "the scope of Smith's triumph with Darden has left jaws hanging open across Wall Street and beyond. Only in

140-451: A unit of Societe Generale until 2006, when it was spun off in an initial public offering and renamed itself, Cowen and Company. Cowen, Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch were joint bookrunners for the public offering. On August 2, 2022, Toronto-Dominion Bank announced it had reached an agreement with Cowen to acquire it for US$ 1.3   billion, translating to $ 39 per share. TD announced that Cowen chair and CEO Jeffrey Solomon would join

160-744: Is an American casual dining seafood restaurant chain owned and operated by Bloomin' Brands , headquartered in Tampa, Florida . The company was founded on January 15, 2000, in St. Petersburg, Florida by Tim Curci and Chris Parker. Bloomin' Brands acquired Bonefish Grill on October 5, 2001. At the time, the company had three locations. In 2006, Bonefish Grill announced the opening of its 100th restaurant. As of January 2022, Bloomin' Brands had five franchised Bonefish Grill restaurants and 167 corporate-owned and operated Bonefish Grills across 28 states. Bonefish Grill restaurants are typically only open for dinner. The company

180-535: Is an American multinational investment bank and financial services division of TD Securities that operates through two business segments: a broker-dealer and an investment management division. The company's broker-dealer division offers investment banking services, equity and credit research , sales and trading, prime brokerage , outsourced trading, global clearing and commission management services. Cowen's investment management segment offers actively managed alternative investment products. Founded in 1918,

200-427: Is the global alternative investment management business of Cowen Inc. Cowen Investment Management offers a range of alternative investment strategies including private health care , health care royalties, real estate , activism, merger and long/short equity, and growth equity . Cowen Investment Management oversees $ 11 billion in assets under management as of Q1/2018. Bonefish Grill Bonefish Grill

220-483: The 1990s, the firm grew the investment banking business, beginning with five initial public offerings and follow-ons for approximately $ 200 million, growing to nearly 80 transactions and $ 5 billion in proceeds by 1995. In 1998, the company was acquired by Société Générale and renamed SG Cowen . In 2000, Cowen sold its private client services unit to Lehman Brothers , retaining its investment banking , research and sales and trading operations. Cowen operated as

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240-476: The Curve series, institutional sales and trading services and prime brokerage. Cowen and Company specializes in growth sectors of the economy , including: consumer , energy , health care , industrials , info tech & services, and technology, media & telecommunications. Business units include: Cowen Investment Management, founded in 1994 as Ramius, by Peter Cohen , Jeff Solomon, Morgan Stark, and Tom Strauss,

260-593: The Symantec board, two with immediate effect (including Starboard Managing Member Peter Feld ) and one following the 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. In addition, Starboard has taken activist positions in Smithfield Foods , Calgon Carbon , Tessera Technologies , Yahoo , Brink's Home Security , Macy's , Darden Restaurants , and Papa John's Pizza . In October 2022, Starboard took a 7.4% stake in Vertiv , claiming it

280-412: The board at Amneal Pharmaceuticals ; James Tyree, chairman of Tyree & D'Angelo Partners; and Steven Shulman, managing partner of Shulman Family Ventures. In 2011, Starboard won seats on the boards of SurModics , a maker of biopharmaceuticals, and Regis , a chain of hair-cutting salons. In December 2011, Starboard sought to gain seats on AOL 's board, charging that the firm's CEO, Tim Armstrong ,

300-601: The firm grew, it developed a leadership position in railroad bonds and launched a research and institutional sales business. The firm expanded significantly in the 1970s in research and retail , opening six offices from coast-to-coast and expanding its business offerings through acquisitions: Hardy & Company; Greene & Ladd; G.S. Grumman; and McCloy-Watterson & Co., Inc. In the 1980s, Cowen expanded internationally, established an investment banking business, and set up offices in London , Geneva , Paris , and Tokyo . In

320-587: The firm is headquartered in New York and has offices worldwide. Cowen claims it is known for successfully identifying emerging industries early on, especially the emerging cannabis industry. Toronto-Dominion Bank acquired Cowen for US$ 1.3 billion in March 2023. The company was then rebranded as TD Cowen and became a division of TD Securities . Founded as a bond trading house, Cowen expanded in its early years to include correspondent clearing and execution services. As

340-488: The senior leadership of TD's securities division following the acquisition, and that the combined business will be known as TD Cowen, headed by Solomon. Cowen and Company, founded in 1918, is the broker-dealer business of Cowen Inc. Cowen and Company offers a range of investment banking services, including: equity , equity-linked and debt financing's, mergers and acquisitions and advisory services. Cowen and Company also provides proprietary research, including its Ahead of

360-547: The value of Starboard's AOL stock more than doubled. After accumulating a 15% stake in Office Depot , Starboard asked for its CEO, Neil Austrian , to be fired, and urged that the firm complete its merger with Office Max . Office Depot gave Starboard three board seats. Starboard also called for a merger between Office Depot and Staples , but the Federal Trade Commission ruled against it for anti-trust reasons, and

380-430: Was "wasting money by funding the losses at Patch, a network of local-news websites," and calling on Armstrong to "return to shareholders much of the more than $ 1 billion it received from the sale of its patents to Microsoft in 2012." Although Starboard lost a proxy battle six months later, Armstrong followed Starboard's advice, spinning off Patch and returning the $ 1 billion from Microsoft to its shareholders. Consequently,

400-474: Was undervalued, seeking operational improvements, with an opportunity to boost margins. Vertiv shares rose more than 10% following the news. In August 2023, it was announced Starboard had acquired a 5% stake in the Tampa -based company, Bloomin’ Brands which owns several American casual dining restaurant brands such as Outback , Carrabba’s , Fleming’s Prime , and Bonefish Grill . In October 2014, after what William D. Cohan of Fortune Magazine described as

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