👉 Background: Atlassian co-founder and tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes recently joined forces with another investment firm to try to buy AGL Energy... and failed. Twice 👎.

👉 What happened: Now, he's attempting to Trojan Horse his way in by buying a near-11.3% stake in AGL. He plans to use ALL his shares to vote against the company's upcoming planned demerger.

👉 What else: The demerger (which needs a 75% shareholder approval rate) would split AGL into two companies: A coal power-generation biz 🪨 and a retail electricity biz 🔌. MCB ain't into it, so he's attempting to force change from within.

🔔 What's the key learning?

💡We're beginning to see a trend of billionaire activism - a form of shareholder activism where billionaires get in on the fun. It's not necessarily for commercial outcomes, but rather based on principles.

💡 Traditional shareholder activism is where a shareholder tries to use their voting rights to bring about change within a company. But, the shareholder doesn't always have enough voting power to effect change.

💡Cue billionaires like Musk and Cannon-Brookes. With enough cash stashed to buy large chunks of companies, billionaires are more keen than ever to take stances against company management in fields they care about.