Scopia Capital Boosts Stake in CONMED, Plus 2 Other Ongoing Activist Battles

In a Proxy Statement filed with the SEC, Willem Mesdag’s Red Mountain Capital Partners LLC urges the shareholders of iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ:IRBT) to support the election of the hedge fund’s two nominees, Mr. Mesdag and Lawrence S. Peiros, at the company’s annual meeting of shareholders that is set to take place in May 2016. Red Mountain Capital currently owns 1.78 million shares of the robotics company, which make up 6.15% of its outstanding common stock. Mr. Mesdag’s hedge fund filed the initial 13D on the company in April 2015, disclosing a 5.1% stake. The filing also included a set of proposals aimed at creating shareholder value, some of which included: focusing solely on its Home Robots business by selling or discarding the Defense and Security business and discontinuing the Remote Presence business; optimizing the capital structure of the Home Robots business; updating the company’s corporate governance policies that would increase board independence and shareholder rights; among others. Moreover, Red Mountain Capital offered a settlement proposal earlier this year, which stipulated the immediate appointment of the two nominees, the increase of the Board size to nine members from eight, and the formation of a capital allocation committee. Apparently, the robotics company refused the proposal and chose to engage in an ongoing and intensifying proxy fight instead. Soon after Red Mountain Capital submitted the aforementioned filing, iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ:IRBT) also submitted a Proxy Statement with the SEC urging shareholders to vote the current slate of directors. The company said that the hedge fund has only suggested actions that the iRobot Board and management team have already undertaken. And iRobot has indeed made clear steps towards implementing some of those proposals, as it recently announced the divestiture of its Defense and Security business unit.

The robotics company derives most of its product revenue from the sale of home cleaning robots, but the company is also manufacturing defense and security robots performing tasks that include battlefield reconnaissance and bomb disposal. Steven Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management acquired a new stake of 325,600 shares in iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ:IRBT) during the December quarter.

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