Activist Investor When Needed

“The Tisch investment strategy was to acquire bargain-priced stock of publicly traded companies that held assets far more valuable than the average investor perceived. Some companies’ stock was cheap de- spite potentially valuable assets, because management hadn’t figured out how to transform those assets into ever-rising profits. In those sit- uations, the Tisches weren’t shy. They became activists. CBS was no”

“A Loews source at the time said that Larry Tisch would be “an in- terested director at CBS but “is not going to tell CBS how to run its business. ^ It was true that Tisch preferred to have the right people running his business, rather than run them himself. Tisch said he liked being far enough removed from daily operations to have an overall view that comes in handy in the decision process.” He was happier managing money than managing people. Now the question was: Was Wyman the best person to run CBS? In the past, Bob Tisch would take the hands-on approach in answering such management questions, but so far, CBS’s board had made it clear they didn’t want more than one Tisch involved at CBS. At the first hoard meeting he attended, in November, Tisch posed tough ques- tions that tended to focus on Wyman’s management skills.”