Elliot Investment Management (EIM) is a New York-based hedge fund founded by Paul Singer, a billionaire who contributes extensively to right-of-center political and advocacy causes, ¹ and run by Singer and Jonathan Pollock as of November 2024. EIM has previously invested in U.S-based companies including Southwest Airlines and Twitter. and for winning a long term legal battle against the government of Argentina to recover losses on its sovereign debt default. ^{2 3 4}

As of June 2024, EIM was reported to have roughly $69.7 billion in assets and a staff of 570 employees. ⁵

Background

Elliot Investment Management was founded in 1977 by Paul Singer with $1.3 million in assets. ⁶

Activities

In 2019, Elliot Investment Manager (EIM) acquired a $3.2 billion stake in communications company AT&T and launched a campaign advocating for the company to sell assets as well as cut its workforce by 30,000. The Communications Workers of America (CWA), the union representing AT&T employees, launched a counter campaign against EIM. In September 2021, the CWA and the Strategic Organizing Center’s Investment Group published a report alleging that companies invested in by EIM will underperform. Prior to this, in November 2020, EIM sold its stake in AT&T. ^{7 8 9}

In 2002, Argentina defaulted on its sovereign debt, of which EIM owned $630 million. The Argentinian government offered bond holders 30%, but EIM refused and challenged Argentina in U.S. and U.K. courts. In 2012, an EIM subsidiary seized a $20 million Argentinian naval ship in Ghana to hold as collateral against Argentina. In 2016, EIM and several bondholders won a ruling in a New York-based court while Argentina agreed to pay out $4.75 billion, or about 70% of what it owed from the default. ^{4 10}

In 2020, EIM acquired a $2.5 billion stake in Japanese investment firm Softbank after it sustained losses due to the failed IPO stock of WeWork. ¹¹

In 2020, after acquiring a stake in Twitter (known as X as of 2024), EIM pushed to remove Twitter founder Jack Dorsey as CEO while attempting to acquire four board seats with the company. ³ In 2022, EIM sold its shares in Twitter for a 33% return before Elon Musk acquired the company. ¹²

In May 2023, EIM became one of Goodyear Tires’ largest investors and launched a campaign to remove the company’s leadership for alleged mismanagement and the selling of local stores. In July that year, Goodyear’s leadership agreed to establish a strategic and operational review committee including two new directors. ¹³

In 2024, EIM acquired a $1.9 billion stake in Southwest Airlines and launched a campaign encouraging investors to vote on removing the CEO as well as members of the board. EIM also pushed for service reforms including the elimination of the airline’s open-seat boarding process. Southwest’s leadership reached an agreement with EIM after instituting five new independent directors and a new board member, and removing the CEO. ²

Leadership

Paul Singer

Paul Singer is the co-founder and co-chief executive officer (CEO) of Elliot Investment Management (EIM). Singer also is the chairman of the right-leaning Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. As of November 2024, Singer has a net-worth of $6.2 billion. ⁶

He is a signatory of the Giving Pledge, a promise to give away most of his wealth before his death. ¹⁴ Signing the pledge, he claimed, “[i]n government, the forces of risk-aversion and constant conflict serve to stultify and narrow the range of ideas up for debate” and “the genius of America has always been to reserve as much freedom and responsibility as possible to that loose federation of private actors known as civil society.” ¹⁴

Singer is also the founder of the Paul E. Singer Foundation, a grantmaking organization that has donated to LGBT groups, foundations that promote policy development on health and education, as well as Jewish-interest and pro-Israel organizations. U.S-based Jewish organization grant recipients have included the UJA Federation of New York and the Jewish Federations of North America. Israeli grant recipients have included the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israel America Academic Exchange. ¹⁵

Singer is also the founder of Start-Up Nation Central, an advocacy group that supports Israeli start-up organizations. ¹⁶

Jonathan Pollock

Jonathan Pollock is the co-CEO of EIM. He joined the firm in 1989 as a trader while becoming co-CEO in 2015. ¹⁷

Pollock and his wife Tea Nadezda Zegarac-Pollock co-founded the Zegarac-Pollock Family Foundation in 2010. Inside Philanthropy describes the foundation as keeping a “a low public profile, which limits information available on its grantmaking priorities and activities.” Its grant recipients are mostly universities and other educational organizations. ¹⁸

1. Diongson, Dominic. “5 High-Profile Hedge Fund Founders & Their Political Affiliations.” TheStreet, August 5, 2024. https://www.thestreet.com/investors/5-high-profile-hedge-fund-founders-and-their-political-affiliations.
2. De la Merced, Michael J. “Southwest Strikes a Truce With the Activist Hedge Fund Elliott.” The New York Times. October 24, 2024. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/24/business/dealbook/southwest-airlines-elliott.html.
3. Brown, Abram. “Twitter’s Jack Dorsey Has A New Nemesis: Hedge Fund Billionaire Paul Singer.” Forbes. February 29, 2020. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/02/29/twitters-jack-dorsey-has-a-new-nemesis-hedge-fund-billionaire-paul-singer/.
4. Fisher, Daniel. “Paul Singer Wins Long Battle With Argentina; Have Emerging Market Bonds Hit Bottom?.” Forbes. February 29, 2019. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2016/02/29/paul-singer-wins-long-battle-with-argentina-have-emerging-market-bonds-hit-bottom/
5. “About Elliot.” Elliot Investment Management. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://www.elliottmgmt.com/about-elliott/.
6. “Paul Singer.” Elliot Investment Management. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://www.forbes.com/profile/paul-singer/.
7. “First-of-Its-Kind Report Exposes Hedge Fund Activist Elliott Management’s Long-Term Harm to Portfolio Companies and Investors.” CWA. September 20, 2021. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/first-of-its-kind-report-exposes-hedge-fund-activist-elliott-managements-long-term.
8. Herbst-Bayliss, Svea. “Elliott exits AT&T after waging a fight in 2019; Starboard exits eBay.” Reuters. November 16, 2020. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://www.reuters.com/article/business/elliott-exits-att-after-waging-a-fight-in-2019-starboard-exits-ebay-idUSKBN27X06Q/.
9. “Elliott Management’s Attack on Jobs and Investment at AT&T.” CWA. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://cwa-union.org/elliott.
10. Whitehouse, Kaja. “Argentina says ‘Arrh, no!’ to Paul Singer’s $20 million demand for seized ship.” New York Post. October 10, 2012. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://nypost.com/2012/10/10/argentina-says-arrh-no-to-paul-singers-20-million-demand-for-seized-ship/.
11. Klebnikov, Sergei. “Billionaire Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Invests Over $2.5 Billion In SoftBank: Report.” Forbes. February 6, 2020. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/02/06/paul-singers-elliott-management-takes-over-25-billion-stake-in-softbank-report/#278a1621825f.
12. Herbst-Bayliss, Svea. “Elliott exited Twitter during second quarter amid takeover frenzy, filings show.” Reuters. August 15, 2022. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/elliott-exited-twitter-during-second-quarter-amid-takeover-frenzy-filings-show-2022-08-16/.
13. “Goodyear Tire to expand board in settlement with Elliott.” Reuters. July 25, 2023. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/goodyear-tire-add-three-directors-settle-with-elliott-2023-07-25//.
14. “Paul E. Singer.” Giving Pledge. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://givingpledge.org/pledger?pledgerId=290.
15. “Paul E. Singer Foundation.” Inside Philanthropy. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/find-a-grant/grants-s/paul-e-singer-foundation.
16. “Paul Singer.” Elliot Investment Management. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://thepesfoundation.org/paul-singer/.
17. “Elliott’s Coolheaded Copilot.” Institutional Investor. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2d6pkkdk9xfmkmajk1kw0/corner-office/elliotts-coolheaded-copilot.
18. “Zegarac-Pollock Family Foundation.” Inside Philanthropy. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/find-a-grant-places/new-york-grants/zegarac-pollock-family-foundation.