It has already been a good week for rabble-rousers. HealthSouth Corporation announced on Monday that it will reimburse certain shareholder expenses connected to proxy campaigns related to the election of directors. And fund management group Legg Mason announced the appointment of Nelson Peltz to its board. The billionaire, who prefers the term constructivist investor, agreed in return to keep his hedge fund’s holding below 10 per cent, and to vote with the board for two years.

Yet the news follows some high-profile activist failures. A similar two-year “standstill” agreement between Mr Peltz and Kraft expired last week. The food company is still considering the purchase of Cadbury, in which Mr Peltz also holds a stake. But Kraft’s profitability and share price have both continued to decline since the agreement was struck. On Friday, Carl Icahn stepped down from the Yahoo board after a prolonged but unsuccessful attempt to sell the company to Microsoft.