Activist investor Carl Icahn is contesting an attempt by the primary owners of AmTrust Financial Services Inc. to take the company private, saying the company hasn’t treated its public shareholders fairly. In a letter to AmTrust’s board Thursday, Mr. Icahn said the Karfunkel and Zyskind families, which control the New York company, are “blatantly taking advantage” of its minority shareholders...

The best-paid CEOs don’t necessarily run the best-performing companies. Corporate boards have tried for years to tie chief executive compensation to the results they deliver. The better the company and its shareholders do, the more the top boss should be paid, or so the pay-for-performance mantra goes. In reality, CEO pay and performance often don’t match up, and 2017 was no exception. Among...

Activist investor Elliott Management Corp. is making a push to take Athenahealth Inc. private, arguing the health-care software company is botching an opportunity to rapidly expand and isn’t providing adequate returns to shareholders as a result. Elliott, which has an 8.9% stake in Athenahealth, offered to buy it for $160 a share Monday, valuing the entire company at about $6.5 billion. That is a 27% premium to Athenahealth’s Friday closing price. ...

London-based activist investor Chris Hohn has built a roughly $3 billion stake in 21st Century Fox Inc., a position that makes him one of the largest holders of a media company at the center of a global takeover battle, according to people familiar with the matter. The investment places Mr. Hohn’s firm, TCI Fund Management, among Fox’s six largest shareholders, with more than 4% of the company’s shares. Mr....

ComScore has tapped board member and digital agency veteran Bryan Wiener as its new chief executive, as the media-measurement company tries to move past years of accounting irregularities . Mr. Wiener is currently executive chairman of Dentsu Inc. -owned ad and media agency 360i, and he has been on comScore’s board since October 2017. ComScore has been without a CEO since November, when co-founder Gian Fulgoni retired from the position...

After nine of 13 members of Forest City Realty Trust's board agreed to step down last month, investors turned their attention to other real-estate investment trusts that could face board pressure in the coming weeks.

The problem: Shares of many REITs have been flagging for the past year, in part because of worries the property market is nearing a peak and partly because of higher interest rates, which make REITs less attractive....

American International Group Inc. paid $67.3 million to its chief executive officers in 2017, with part of the payment going to a man who resigned under pressure early in the year and another portion to attract his successor...

A proxy fight is under way at Supervalu Inc. as an activist investor seeks to overhaul the board of directors at one of the nation’s largest grocery companies. Blackwells Capital LLC has nominated candidates for six seats on Supervalu’s nine-person board. Board members will be elected at the company’s shareholder meeting later this year. Supervalu...

A special committee of Nordstrom Inc.’s board of directors has terminated discussions with members of the founding Nordstrom family who were trying to take the company private...

David Cote, one of the people overseeing the search for a new president at the New York Fed, resigned from the bank’s board of directors Saturday, a day after officials said they had narrowed their list of candidates for the bank’s top job...

In the coming weeks, many public companies in the U.S. will disclose for the first time their “pay ratios”—the CEO’s compensation divided by the median employee’s. The requirement to provide this ratio was included in the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. But comparing the figures among different companies—and particularly different industries—will hardly be a straightforward task...

Two members of Wynn Resorts Ltd. board of directors said they will step down, as the company continues to deal with the fallout from allegations of sexual misconduct by former Chief Executive Steve Wynn...

The largest investor in Avis Budget Group Inc. is launching a fight to shake up the car-rental car company’s board of directors, a ratcheting up of several years of tension between the two...

Wynn Resorts Ltd.’s board of directors said it has stopped an independent law-firm investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against former Chairman and Chief Executive Steve Wynn...

An activist investor is turning up its pressure on Supervalu Inc., planning a board fight and urging a breakup and potential sale of one of the nation’s biggest grocery companies. Blackwells Capital LLC, which owns about 4.35% of Supervalu’s stock, privately urged the board to give it three seats and form a committee to review potentially separating Supervalu’s retail and wholesale divisions and selling the wholesale group, according to a letter it sent the board Tuesday evening. ...

The board of directors of Wynn Resorts, which has pledged to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct involving Chief Executive Steve Wynn, has itself faced criticism over its executive-compensation and corporate-governance practices...

A group of activist investors are joining together to call on Avon Products Inc. to seek a buyer, in a move that could set up a fight for the company’s board as a key deadline looms...

Two large Xerox investors, billionaires Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason, have formed an alliance and plan to encourage the printer and copier giant to explore a potential sale...

A preliminary ruling from a federal judge against William Ackman, his hedge fund and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. in an insider-trading case could trigger a settlement between the activist investor and shareholders of Allergan PLC. In recent days, Mr. Ackman, his partners and the plaintiffs have been back in touch with the mediator in the matter, according to people familiar with the matter. There are several parties who would have to agree to any deal...

General Electric Co. recently conducted an internal review into the flying of a spare business jet to accompany former Chief Executive Jeff Immelt, as it seeks to understand an unusual practice that went on for years and surprised investors when they learned of it in October.

A nearly century-old timber company is an unsung management gem. Investor-favorite blue chips haven’t lost their luster in terms of how well they are run. And the tech giants shaping much of today’s society are the most effectively managed U.S. companies...

SandRidge Energy Inc.’s board has adopted a so-called poison pill that would make it more difficult for activist investor Carl Icahn, who recently disclosed a 13.5% stake in the oil and gas producer, to increase his stake as he criticizes SandRidge’s plan to buy Bonanza Creek Energy Inc...

A housecleaning at General Electric Co.’s board will remove many long-term associates of former Chief Executive Jeff Immelt and aims to create a board that is more closely aligned with CEO John Flannery’s strategy to streamline the industrial giant...

Automatic Data Processing Inc. has spent the past several years trying to modernize its business. On Tuesday, shareholders will decide whether those moves are enough or if they want to allow one of Wall Street’s most powerful and polarizing investors into the boardroom. Famed hedge fund manager William Ackman is seeking a seat for himself and two others on ADP’s 10-person board, saying it has fallen behind hot technology companies that have made its human-resources industry user-friendly...