WHEN IS STATUS QUO NO LONGER STATUS QUO

There's a new kid in town. Only thing is, he isn't really new. He known as active investors.

Active investors, like the companies and many of the products the companies offer, come in all sizes and shapes. Taking a meaningful stake in a company's stock, active investors show up often out of the blue.

Active investors seek change. And as we all know change seldom goes down easily. What kind of change? Strategic and financial for the most part, but often it about replacing either an incompetent or complacent management.

Bottom line, it's about money as in driving the stock price higher or being bribed, as it were, to just go away. As the Wall Street Journal, "Rising Clout Of Activists Investors Tests Chief Executives,"
in it's pre-holiday edition notes: activists calls for changes on company boards and even chief operating officers is on the rise again.

These forays peaked just ahead of the 2008 recession, falling for four years before starting to pick up in 2013 and move even higher so far this year. There an old saying still water runs deep. Underneath the pickup in activity is another sign many miss.

They are not just greedy big shakers and movers. The fact that these forays are growing in their success shows ".....their increasing support from shareholders, who have become more assertive in challenging CEOs since the financial crisis."

As the Journal points out, "So far this year, they scored at least a partial victory in 72% of campaigns for board seats, up from 57% in 2008."

Before one writes it all off as greedy shareholders hooking up with greedy activists, for openers for years too many companies have placed convenient firewalls to keep a lethargic management status quo status quo.

Such activity in recent years has affected companies form Darden Restaurants to Nexflix to Sotheby's to Yahoo, according to the WSJ. Though not all has led to management changes, activists frequently present shareholders with what is believed by both as a better plan for a target company's future.

This is not to say the sitting boards and CEOs take these invasions lying down. Poison pills on Wall Street and in corporate boardrooms are hardly new. These pills are an attempt to block large share purchases by activists.

What all this sets off usually is a costly struggle that can turn quite ugly as the spying from both camps increases. 

Like it or not, it's a message to corporate leaders not to get too comfortable with the status quo.