Richard (Mick) McGuire III’s Marcato Capital Management is turning up the heat on Sotheby’s. The San Francisco–based activist hedge fund firm has filed legal action to force the auctioneer to publicly disclose certain documents from earlier legal proceedings involving another activist hedge fund firm, Daniel Loeb’s New York–based Third Point.
“The resolution of this dispute was announced on May 5, 2014, but unredacted versions of certain court filings remain unavailable to the public,” Marcato states in a regulatory filing. Marcato adds that Sotheby’s will have five days “to determine whether it will oppose” its notice.
Last week we reported that Marcato called on Sotheby’s board to repurchase $500 million of Sotheby’s shares. It also urged the company to find a new chief financial officer once it finishes searching for a new chief executive officer. Marcato’s main fund has posted a 6.90 percent gain this month through February 13, but it is only up 0.60 percent for the year.
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JDS Uniphase Corporation filed a registration statement with regulators related to the spinoff of its communications and commercial optical products business, which will be named Lumentum Holdings Inc. JDSU said its network enablement, service enablement and optical security and performance products businesses will be renamed Viavi Solutions when the separation is completed. In response to the registration, New York–based activist hedge fund firm Sandell Asset Management asserted that JDS Uniphase’s board of directors “has yet again failed the shareholders.”
Sandell complained about the governance provisions of the proposed spin-off of Lumentum Holdings, stating that the company “does not intend to permit shareholders to take action by written consent, does not intend to permit shareholders to call special meetings, and intends to allow vacancies on Lumentum’s board of directors to be filled by the remaining directors (without affirming the shareholders’ right to do so).”
Sandell also lambasted JDS Uniphase for ignoring the hedge fund firm’s earlier letter calling on the company to conform to best governance practices. “We believe the entrenching mechanisms proposed at Lumentum clearly signify that the board has been disingenuous as regards to its purported willingness to enhance shareholder value and we intend to hold the entire board accountable for these actions,” it adds in its filing.
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Thomas Bancroft III of La Jolla, California-based hedge fund Makaira Partners has been named to the board of Wesco Aircraft Holdings, a provider of supply chain management services to the aerospace industry with a $1.5 billion market capitalization. Under the deal, Bancroft, a former financial journalist, will serve as a Class III director on the staggered board. His term expires at the company’s 2017 annual meeting.
Bancroft will also serve on the ad hoc executive committee of the board formed to work with senior management “to steer the company’s strategic direction and operations” as it searches for a permanent chief executive officer, according to the filing. Bancroft, Makaira and the company also entered into a cooperation agreement. Makaira held about $567 million in equity assets at the end of the year, spread over 12 stocks, including Wesco, which was by far its largest holding at about 18 percent of the portfolio.
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Philippe Laffont’s New York-based Coatue Management was one of a handful of investors to participate in a new $6 million financing of Citymaps, which describes itself as a “social mapping platform.” The company explains that it allows users to “create collections of places, or personal maps, with easily searchable themes.”
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Chicago-based Citadel increased its stake in Carrizo Oil & Gas by 50 percent, to 2.4 million shares, or 5.2 percent of the oil and gas company’s total shares.
