When Facing Activist Investors, Fight Has Gone 24/7

When Carl C. Icahn sought to oppose a buyout of Dell this year, he turned to his classic playbook, issuing impassioned proclamations to shareholders.

But his preferred method of delivering these dispatches was brand new: Twitter.

“Today, if you want to have a voice in the Dell deal, all you have to do is tweet,” James B. Lee Jr., the top JPMorgan Chase deal maker who advised the special committee of Dell’s board, said at the DealBook conference on Tuesday.

Whereas deal makers of the 1980s had only to turn to the business papers to get the latest news, that has changed, Mr. Lee said.

“When you’re advising clients, the 24/7, mobile â€" all of that â€" suddenly plays into the mix,” he said, adding that the Dell deal “aged me a lot.”

The comments came during a panel on investor activism, moderated by Steven M. Davidoff, DealBook’s Deal Professor. The participants on the panel, who included the investment banker Joseph R. Perella and the private equity titan Wilbur Ross, debated what a company should do when faced with an activist investor.

“There can be real harm that’s done, if you have someone who comes in but doesn’t act like an insider,” said Faiza J. Saeed, the co-head of mergers and acquisitions at Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

She referred in particular to J.C. Penney, which suffered after the investor William A. Ackman got on the board. The company hired a new chief executive, only to see sales fall.

“If you think they’re going to be destructive, take the fight,” Ms. Saeed said.

But defining such skirmishes in terms of winning and losing is wrongheaded, Mr. Ross argued. The real question, he said, is “does the activist have a point or not?”

He expressed skepticism about cloistered boards, suggesting that some could perhaps use a fresh perspective.

“Big companies have a very holier-than-thou attitude,” Mr. Ross said. “They don’t want to let outside people in. It’s not very healthy.”

At the same time, investors can also add value to a company, Mr. Lee noted, referring to Daniel S. Loeb’s investment in Yahoo. In that case, Mr. Loeb helped bring in Marissa Mayer as the chief executive, and the stock price has risen.

“Dan, and what he did at Yahoo, would have to go down as constructivist,” Mr. Lee said.