Activist investing isn't a new concept. It has existed since the stock market crash of 1929, perhaps earlier. Not all activist investing campaigns have been successful, but they all have a similar goal: To increase shareholders' value and by extension, a stock's price.
Many point to Benjamin Graham's 1926 fight with Northern Pipeline as the beginning of the activist investing movement. Graham, a mentor to Warren Buffett, accumulated a major stake in the railroad company and worked with management to return excess cash to shareholders.
