Investor Dan Loeb has added small stakes in ViacomCBS and Amazon to the portfolio of his Third Point LLC investment firm during the final months of 2019.
Third Point disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday its ownership of shares in the newly merged Redstone empire and the high-flying e-commerce behemoth.
Loeb at times has been an activist investor agitating for management and strategy changes at companies that he invests in. In 2013 and 2014, Loeb pushed for big changes at Sony Corp., including a spinoff of the Sony Pictures Entertainment studio arm. A representative for Third Point declined to comment on the firm’s latest moves.
During the quarter ended Dec. 31, Third Point amassed a $115.4 million stake, or 2.75 million shares, in ViacomCBS, which has a market cap of $21.4 billion as of Friday. ViacomCBS shares have been down about 17% since the start of the year, adding to the pressure on the newly integrated management teams of Viacom and CBS to demonstrate that the reunification of the two sides of Shari Redstone’s empire will deliver growth potential.
Third Point also added $129.3 million worth of shares in Amazon, which has a market cap of $1 trillion as of Friday. The company also trimmed $67 million from its holdings in Fox Corp. during the quarter, leaving Third Point with $185.3 million, or 5 million shares.
Third Point is a minority investor in PMC, parent company of Variety.