TheStreet Quotes Andrew Freedman on Jana Partners’ Apple Campaign

TheStreet quoted Corporate Partner and Co-Head of Olshan’s Activist & Equity Investment Group Andrew Freedman on the alliance between activist fund Jana Partners and the public pension fund California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) and their campaign to encourage tech giant Apple Inc. to help curtail smartphone addiction among children. Some view the investment—categorized as environmental, social, and governance activism (ESG), which large public pension funds have concentrated on heavily—as a means for Jana Partners to acquire capital allocations from public pension funds for its traditional activist fund. Mr. Freedman believes that the trend of activists and pension funds joining forces on social campaigns will continue: “It could also spearhead a trend among the top tier activist investors to seek to wield their influence more holistically on other fronts and issues at public companies.” He notes that the partnership between Jana Partners and CalSTRS not only reinforces goodwill between the former and the ESG-focused institutional investor community, but it also promotes a socially-conscious public image for Jana Partners.