Activist Investors - An unlikely introduction!

Though the teaching term officially ended a couple of weeks ago, I am still very new to finance and business. I will be taking an exam (its a seen one) on that subject in exactly 10 days (9 to be fair) and one of the questions deal with Activist Investors.

I don't know if attending a class at 9AM makes other people sleep in the class or not but for me - title holder of "Pro-at-sleeping-while-sitting-anywhere-anytime" for almost 5 years now, its health issue :))

That was a bit of justification why I am still blank about many of the concepts in this area. But tonight I got a real deep insight into what 'Activist Investors' are from a very very unlikely source. Just like yesterday - it was movie time after dinner and today it was Pretty Woman (1990)

Richard Gere is as charming as he could be as he plays the role of an Activist Investor who 'buys companies which are in trouble and sells them piece by piece to make money'. Julia elucidates - 'its like stealing cars and selling the parts'.

I am sure there is much more to the topic than Richard, but for an inspiration to know more I think he is brilliant ;)