Hedge Fund News: Louis Bacon, Dell Inc. (DELL), The Procter & Gamble Company (PG)

Denner Joins Vivus Activist Slate in First Post-Icahn Move (BusinessWeek)
Alex Denner, the former head of health-care investments for billionaire Carl Icahn, joined the activist slate challenging drugmaker VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS) in the first move of his new fund, Sarissa Capital Management LP. First Manhattan Co., which said it holds about 10 percent of VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS) shares outstanding, added Denner to its proposed slate to bring the total number of potential directors to nine, matching an expansion by VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS) of its board in the past month. Denner’s fund owns about 2 million shares, or 2 percent, of VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS)’s stock, First Manhattan said today in a statement.

P&G CEO Bob McDonald Steps Down After Pressure From Bill Ackman, Activist Investor (BusinessInsider)
Bob McDonald, the 59-year-old CEO of The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) and a 33-year veteran of the company, has stepped down suddenly. …Ackman had privately urged the company’s board last year to replace McDonald, according to the Wall Street Journal, and at the Ira Sohn investing conference early this month, the hedge fund manager had said that McDonald only had a couple of quarters to show that he could improve performance. Ackman also took pot shots at McDonald for serving on too many corporate boards, which, he claimed to have calculated, ate up 25% of his time.

Five investments hedge funds are selling (MarketIntelligenceCenter)
The misleading name “hedge fund” refers to a class of investment vehicles that have in common only one trait: that they do not meet the criteria for any investment vehicle that is recognized and regulated by the SEC. The U.S. does limit participation in hedge funds to accredited investors, these being necessarily wealthy and presumably sophisticated. Many hedge funds operate within the U.S., as kicking them out would merely cause them to set up shop elsewhere and would do nothing to stop investors from putting money into them.