American Capital Undertakes Strategic Review After Pressure from Olshan Client Elliott Management

Barron’s, Bloomberg, The Deal (subscription required), The Wall Street Journal, Bidness Etc. and other national media reported that American Capital Ltd.(ACAS), a publicly traded private equity firm and global asset manager, will undertake a full strategic review of options that includes a potential sale of the company after pressure from Olshan client activist investor Elliott Management Corp. The review will consider all alternatives for maximizing shareholder value, including a sale of American Capital or its various business lines in whole or in part. Also due to Elliott's pressure, American Capital increased an existing stock buyback program into the range of $600 million to $1 billion, up from a prior range of $300 million to $600 million. The strategic review comes less than two weeks after Elliott launched an activism campaign opposing American Capital's plan to spin out a business development company unit into a stand-alone firm. Olshan Partners Steve Wolosky represent Elliott in its campaign at American Capital.