Deep Value: Why Activist Investors and Other Contrarians Battle for Control of Losing Corporations - Hardcover

by Tobias E. Carlisle (Author)

The economic climate is ripe for another golden age of shareholder activism

Deep Value: Why Activist Investors and Other Contrarians Battle for Control of Losing Corporations is a must-read exploration of deep value investment strategy, describing the evolution of the theories of valuation and shareholder activism from Graham to Icahn and beyond. The book combines engaging anecdotes with industry research to illustrate the principles and methods of this complex strategy, and explains the reasoning behind seemingly incomprehensible activist maneuvers. Written by an active value investor, Deep Value provides an insider's perspective on shareholder activist strategies in a format accessible to both professional investors and laypeople.

The Deep Value investment philosophy as described by Graham initially identified targets by their discount to liquidation value. This approach was extremely effective, but those opportunities are few and far between in the modern market, forcing activists to adapt. Current activists assess value from a much broader palate, and exploit a much wider range of tools to achieve their goals. Deep Value enumerates and expands upon the resources and strategies available to value investors today, and describes how the economic climate is allowing value investing to re-emerge. Topics include:

• Target identification, and determining the most advantageous ends
• Strategies and tactics of effective activism
• Unseating management and fomenting change
• Eyeing conditions for the next M&A boom

Activist hedge funds have been quiet since the early 2000s, but economic conditions, shareholder sentiment, and available opportunities are creating a fertile environment for another golden age of activism. Deep Value: Why Activist Investors and Other Contrarians Battle for Control of Losing Corporations provides the in-depth information investors need to get up to speed before getting left behind.

Front Jacket

Deep Value offers investors an authoritative exploration of the philosophy of deep value investment. Written by Tobias Carlisle--an active value investor and the well-known blogger at greenbackd.com--this important resource describes the evolution of the various theories of intrinsic value and activist investment from Benjamin Graham to Warren Buffett to Carl Icahn and beyond. Filled with engaging anecdotes and meticulous research, the book illustrates the principles and strategies of deep value investing and examines the counterintuitive idea behind its extraordinary performance. Deep Value is a practical guide that reveals little-known valuation metrics that activist investors and other contrarians use to identify attractive, asymmetric investment opportunities with limited downside and enormous upside.

Tobias Carlisle presents an insider's perspective on valuation and activism in a format that is accessible to both professional and general investors. The value investment philosophy as first described by Benjamin Graham initially identified targets by their discount to liquidation value. This approach has proven extremely effective; however, those opportunities have all but disappeared from the modern stock market. To succeed, today's deep value investors have adapted Graham's philosophy, embracing its spirit while pushing beyond its confines. In Deep Value, Carlisle examines Graham's 80-year-old intellectual legacy using modern statistical techniques to offer a penetrating and highly original perspective: that losing stocks--those in crisis with apparently failing businesses and uncertain futures--offer unusually favorable investment prospects. As the author demonstrates, the evidence reveals an axiomatic truth about investing: investors aren't rewarded for picking winners; they're rewarded for uncovering mispricings.

Deep Value shows the place to look for mispricings--in calamity, among the unloved, the ignored, the neglected, the shunned, and the feared.

Back Jacket

Deep Value offers investors an authoritative exploration of the philosophy of deep value investment. Written by Tobias Carlisle--an active value investor and the well-known blogger at greenbackd.com--this important resource describes the evolution of the various theories of intrinsic value and activist investment from Benjamin Graham to Warren Buffett to Carl Icahn and beyond. Filled with engaging anecdotes and meticulous research, the book illustrates the principles and strategies of deep value investing and examines the counterintuitive idea behind its extraordinary performance. Deep Value is a practical guide that reveals little-known valuation metrics that activist investors and other contrarians use to identify attractive, asymmetric investment opportunities with limited downside and enormous upside.

Tobias Carlisle presents an insider's perspective on valuation and activism in a format that is accessible to both professional and general investors. The value investment philosophy as first described by Benjamin Graham initially identified targets by their discount to liquidation value. This approach has proven extremely effective; however, those opportunities have all but disappeared from the modern stock market. To succeed, today's deep value investors have adapted Graham's philosophy, embracing its spirit while pushing beyond its confines. In Deep Value, Carlisle examines Graham's 80-year-old intellectual legacy using modern statistical techniques to offer a penetrating and highly original perspective: that losing stocks--those in crisis with apparently failing businesses and uncertain futures--offer unusually favorable investment prospects. As the author demonstrates, the evidence reveals an axiomatic truth about investing: investors aren't rewarded for picking winners; they're rewarded for uncovering mispricings.

Deep Value shows the place to look for mispricings--in calamity, among the unloved, the ignored, the neglected, the shunned, and the feared.

Author Biography

TOBIAS E. CARLISLE is the founder and managing director of Eyquem Investment Management LLC and serves as portfolio manager of the firm's fund and managed accounts. He is best known as the author of the well-regarded website greenbackd.com and as co-author of Quantitative Value: A Practitioner's Guide to Automating Intelligent Investment and Eliminating Behavioral Errors (Wiley). He has extensive experience in business valuation, portfolio management, investment research, public company corporate governance, and corporate law. Prior to founding Eyquem in 2010, Tobias was an analyst at an activist hedge fund, general counsel of a company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, and a corporate advisory lawyer. As a lawyer specializing in mergers and acquisitions, he has advised on transactions across a variety of industries in the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Australia, Singapore, Bermuda, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and Guam.