It appears that it will take a major activist to shake things up at the $300 billion-plus market cap healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ). The healthcare company was under pressure last year to consider breaking up, which comes as it has underperformed the S&P 500 over the last five years.
Johnson & Johnson's move to buy up Actelion Pharmaceuticals, the U.K. biotech firm, will only make it harder for an activist to break things up. But, ideally, a renewed focus on a buyout could help re-spark growth - i.e. Johnson & Johnson becoming its own activist. The company has been buying up companies despite the calls for a breakup.
Artisan Partners was the "activist investor" that stepped up to make the call for a Johnson & Johnson breakup. But that's been almost a year. No major activist, like a Carl Icahn or Bill Ackman, has stepped up to take the torch and put real pressure for a breakup.
