Dan Loeb Goes Activist on Baxter International Inc (BAX) and Asks for Two Seats on the Board

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Aside from Loeb, other top shareholders of Baxter International Inc (NYSE:BAX) include Richard S. Pzena’s Pzena Investment Management, which owns 5.03 million shares as of the end of March. Trailing Pzena by a huge margin are Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies and Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital with 1.95 million shares and 1.75 million shares respectively.

Dan Loeb is indeed an activist investor with a great track record. It was one of the key players that overhauled operations at Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), which led to the appointment of CEO Marissa Mayer. Loeb also conducted a fierce activist campaign against Sothebys (NYSE:BID)’s governance, which ended with an agreement to appoint two of Loeb’s representatives on Sotheby’s board, in exchange for the investor maintaining a 15% stake in the company. Sotheby did not replace its CEO William Ruprecht until earlier this year, when he retired and Tad Smith was appointed as President and CEO. As of the end of March, Loeb’s largest holdings are represented by Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN), Actavis (currently known as Allergan PLC (NYSE:AGN)), and Dow Chemical Co (NYSE:DOW). The investor owns an equity portfolio of $10.95 billion, according to its last 13F filing.

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