Two icons of the Grande Milan like Paolo Maldini e Zvonimir Boban they are the latest but not the only ones victims of American Elliott Fund activism, who rocked the football club last night, effectively giving the old guard the boot. The Fund itself is preparing to also oust the CEO of Twitter, if it manages to scale the social media known all over the world.
Paradoxically, among the companies owned by the American Activist Fund only in Tim, after months and months of furious clashes with the French of Vivendi, tranquility reigns thanks to the ability of CEO Luigi Gubitosi, Elliott's trusted manager, and to the serenity among the shareholders guaranteed by a president of great balance like the former General Manager of the Bank of Italy, Salvatore Rossi.
At the top of the Milan, controlled by the Elliott Fund which has its long arm in the South African CEO Gazidis, the fire was smoldering under the ashes and yesterday evening the showdown was reached which will lead, in times and ways to be defined, to thefarewell of Maldini and Boban. He also risks the bench of Stefano Pioli. It all stems from the desire expressed by Gazidis to hire an English-style manager-coach like the German Ralf Rangnick, which Maldini and Boban saw as a disavowal of their work. Maldini first and Boban later didn't say anything and argued that the German is unsuitable for Milan, but Gazidis didn't retreat an inch and in the end won by imposing his choice, with the support of the shareholder, which will lead from June to the umpteenth change on the bench but which will first rock the upper floors of the company management.
But Milan is not the only front on which the Elliott Fund, founded by Paul Singer, a great supporter of President Donald Trump, is waging its battle in these hours: there is also Twitter where, according to the Bloomberg agency, the Elliott Fund recently reportedly invested about a billion dollars to buy social media shares. Elliott wants a clear change of course at the top of Twitter, where he resents the debated CEO Jack Dorsey, who in addition to leading Twitter, also manages a financial company he founded as Square, of which he holds 13% and which occupies a large part of his time. Sparks ahead.
