Activist Investor Starboard Value Takes Stake in Pfizer Inc

Investing.com — Activist investor Starboard Value has acquired approximately $1 billion in Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) and is advocating for significant changes to improve the company’s underperformance, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday.

Starboard has reached out to two former Pfizer executives, Ian Read and Frank D’Amelio, both of whom have shown interest in assisting the company. Read previously served as Pfizer’s CEO, and D’Amelio was the CFO until 2021.

Pfizer experienced substantial benefits from vaccine demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this demand has diminished over the past two years, leading to declining earnings and share performance, as the company overestimated future pandemic-related demand.

Additionally, the firm faced criticism for a lack of discipline in its pandemic-era acquisitions and has also fallen behind competitors Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) and Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) in introducing popular weight loss drugs.

Starboard recently invested in Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) to encourage an increase in share price and has been active within the technology sector as well.