But hedge funds and other large activist investors have in recent years become increasingly important clients to Wall Street banks.

Takeovers.com, for example, will be a portal for so-called activist investors looking to expose corporate misdeeds.

Moreover, as the number of activist investors grows, a vast ad hoc network has formed that makes it more difficult for companies to win a fight.

But it could increase the power and influence of activist institutional investors.

This is the province of so-called activist investors.

Those who have not yet had contact with activist investors are seeking advice.

That conference raises a sticky issue for activist investors.

But that doesn't explain the enormous influence that he has developed as a self-proclaimed activist investor.

Those activist investors believed to have pressured Carrefour?

Elliott International, another well known activist investor already involved in a move against National Express, has built up a 3pc stake.