Washington University Law Review Volume 89 Issue 1 2011 Activist Distressed Debtholders: The New Barbarians at the Gate? Michelle M. Harner University of Maryland Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Michelle M. Harner, Activist Distressed Debtholders: The New Barbarians at the Gate?, 89 WASH. U. L. REV. 155 (2011). Available at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol89/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington University Law Review by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ACTIVIST DISTRESSED DEBTHOLDERS: THE NEW BARBARIANS AT THE GATE? MICHELLE M. HARNER ABSTRACT The term “corporate raiders” previously struck fear in the hearts of corporate boards and management teams. It generally refers to investors who target undervalued, cash-flush or mismanaged companies and initiate a hostile takeover of the company. Corporate raiders earned their name in part because of their focus on value extraction, which could entail dismantling a company and selling off its crown jewels. Today, the term often conjures up images of Michael Milken, Henry Kravis, or the movie character Gordon Gekko, but the alleged threat posed to companies by corporate raiders is less prevalent—at least with respect to the traditional use of equity to facilitate a hostile takeover. The growing use of debt rather than equity to cause a change of control at target companies raises new concerns for corporate boards and management teams and new policy considerations for commentators and legislators.