Milton Friedman will be spinning in his grave at the heresy perpetrated by the US Business Roundtable. For the thick end of five decades US capitalism has been run along Friedmanite lines – namely that businesses are there to make money for their shareholders. No charitable giving, no diversity awareness. No green audits. Just making money. Period. Now some of the highest paid on the planet have appeared to ditch the idea of shareholder primacy...

ZURICH (Reuters) - Ernesto Occhiello had three tasks when he became Clariant's boss last September: restore calm after an activist investor uprising, oversee a tie-up with Saudi Basic Industries <2010.SE> and keep the peace with Chairman Hariolf Kottmann. Just 10 months later, Occhiello has quit as chief executive "for personal reasons with immediate effect", the specialty chemicals maker said on Wednesday, raising speculation the Italian failed on at least one of those fronts...

LONDON (Reuters) - Activist investor Edward Bramson is resigning from the board of Electra to focus on other commitments after leading a four-year transformation of the British private equity firm. Bramson, who has served as a director since 2015, was also the company's Chief Executive between 2016 and 2017, and was chiefly responsible for a sweeping overhaul of the firm's investment portfolio and governance...

(Reuters) - Activist investor Elliott has taken a position in Britain's Saga Plc , less than a month after the specialist tourism and insurance firm warned that discounting was taking a heavy toll on its tours business. Elliott Capital Advisors disclosed a 5.14% stake in Saga as at July 12, a filing showed on Wednesday...

Merlin Entertainments has accepted the offer from Lego's owners, a private equity giant and a Canadian pension fund. More Madame Tussauds owner Merlin Entertainments has agreed a £5.9 billion takeover bid from Lego’s owners, a private equity giant and a Canadian pension fund...

A top executive at Lloyds Banking Group has claimed chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio is a “winner” with “charisma” who deserves his controversial pension perks and pay deal. Stuart Sinclair, chair of the remuneration committee at Lloyds, told MPs that staff at the bank did not resent Mr Horta-Osorio’s pay deal, which last year saw him pick up a £6.27 million pay package and included a pension contribution of 33%. This compares with an average employee pension contribution of 13%...

A hedge fund run by veteran activist investor Nelson Peltz has bought a 6% stake worth around £736 million in plumbing group Ferguson. Trian said it believed Ferguson – previously called Wolseley – was “an attractive business that trades at a discount to comparable US peers” as it snapped up the holding. It added it has been in contact with Ferguson management and “looks forward to working with them to explore and implement initiatives that it believes can create long-term shareholder value”.

Tesco has come under fire for handing “excessive” pay to top boss Dave Lewis ahead of its annual meeting by an influential shareholder lobby group. Last month it was announced that Dave Lewis picked up a £4.6 million pay packet, months after 9,000 jobs were put at risk at the retail giant. Mr Lewis earned a £1.6 million bonus, on top of his £1.25 million base salary and £1.3 million through the company’s long-term share plans, Tesco’s annual report revealed.

Tom Reilly, chief executive officer of Cloudera Inc., stands during the company's initial public offering (IPO) on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York. More Cloudera shares plunged more than 40% on Thursday after the company announcement that CEO Tom Reilly is leaving and lowered its 2020 revenue forecast.

AstraZeneca (AZ), the FTSE-100 pharmaceuticals group, is preparing a search for the successor to the chairman who helped it fend off Pfizer's £69bn takeover bid five years ago. Sky News has learnt that the drug-maker's board is at the early stages of planning to seek an eventual replacement for Leif Johansson, who has chaired AZ for seven years...

(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Tuesday that only 71.64 percent of shareholder votes cast approved its executive compensation packages, marking a rare instance of criticism over the bank's top leaders pay. JPMorgan Chase also said all of its directors were elected, and that a shareholder proposal that the bank report annually on its global gender pay gap was voted down, according to preliminary tallies...

(Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp abandoned plans to hive off its steel business and split up the rest of the German conglomerate on Friday after a lengthy battle with activist investors and regulators, opting to list its elevators division instead...

Activist investor Carl Icahn has taken a small stake in Occidental Petroleum, people close to the matter told CNBC on Friday. The company is in the middle of a rare bidding war for Anadarko Petroleum, having bid $38 billion for its smaller rival. Chevron had previously bid $33 billion for Anadarko. Shares of Occidental jumped 2% in extended trading Friday, immediately following the news...

Barclays has scored a victory against activist investor Edward Bramson, who has conceded defeat in his attempt to gain a seat on the British bank’s board. Mr Bramson – whose investment vehicle Sherborne Investors owns a 5.5% stake in Barclays – had been trying to muscle his way on to the top table, while also calling on the lender to curtail its investment arm and increase returns for investors...

(Reuters) - Shareholders approved Credit Suisse's 2018 compensation report with an 82 percent majority on Friday, overriding frustrations expressed at its annual general meeting over jumps in executive pay during a year its share price plummeted...

Shares of Cerner are up 20% this year but the medical records company can still rise much further as it is still cheap, activist investor Jeff Smith said Tuesday. Smith, the CEO of Starboard Value, told CNBC's David Faber the company can expand its operating margins by about 3.5% if it meets certain targets the activist investor helped Cerner implement. "The market is not giving them credit for those targets. We believe those targets are achievable," Smith said...

One of Wall Street’s most powerful activist investors has trained his sights on Sony for the second time in six years, sending shares in the Japanese conglomerate up on the prospect of a break-up. Dan Loeb, the head of Third Point Capital, is planning to raise up to $1bn (£770m) to raise its stake in Sony and agitate for change, according to reports...

LONDON (Reuters) - An activist group said it has withdrawn a shareholder resolution calling on Royal Dutch Shell to change its climate policy after the oil and gas company reached a broad agreement with investors on the issue. The Anglo-Dutch energy company drew rare praise from investors and environmental activists in December when it set out plans to introduce industry-leading targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and link them to executive pay...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Activist investor Elliott has hiked its stake in German 3D printing firm SLM Solutions to 29.8 percent and is bringing in new supervisory board members following a series of profit warnings and a slump in the company's share price. SLM said in a statement on Thursday that Elliott would acquire all new shares from a capital increase, priced at 7.23 euros (£6.2) a share. SLM said it would reap 13 million euros in proceeds from the deal...

A shareholder rebellion is brewing before Royal Bank of Scotland’s annual general meeting as investor groups raise red flags over a pay policy that involves the chief executive receiving £350,000 per year in pension payments. The Investment Association (IA) and individual shareholder society ShareSoc have released reports raising concern over pension payments for the bank’s CEO, Ross McEwan, which are out of line with the rest of its workforce...

By Lawrence White LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays chief executive Jes Staley took direct control of its under-pressure investment bank on Wednesday, ousting the head of the business Tim Throsby in a surprise shake-up as he battles an activist investor. Staley is assuming oversight of the three Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB) divisions, banking, markets and corporate bank, in a move he said would help improve overall returns to more than the 7 percent achieved in 2018...

The three most senior board members at Domino’s Pizza Group are all preparing to step down amid a deepening row with franchisees which has helped wipe hundreds of millions of pounds off the company’s share price. Sky News can reveal that Domino's has begun a formal search to replace Helen Keays, who has served on the board for nearly eight years, including the last three as senior independent director...

An influential investor group has written to more than 60 publicly listed companies with only a single female director, including Domino’s Pizza and JD Sports, raising concerns over a lack of gender diversity and warning of a backlash if progress is stalled...

(Reuters) - Proxy advisory firm International Shareholder Services on Monday recommended that Hyundai Motor Group investors elect some directors nominated by Elliott Management as the activist hedge fund braces for a showdown with the South Korean conglomerate...