By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investment firm D.E. Shaw has built a position in Riot Platforms and will push it to make changes, two sources accustomed to the matter said, making it the second activist shareholder to accomplish that on the cryptocurrency mining company.
Reuters couldn’t determine the dimensions of D.E. Shaw’s stake in Riot. Representatives for Riot and D.E. Shaw, which oversees $70 billion in assets, declined to comment.
D.E. Shaw’s purchase of a stake comes after Starboard Value late last yr took an undisclosed position in Riot, which processes bitcoin transactions and receives the cryptocurrency as payment. Riot has said that it has held talks with Starboard.
Starboard has pushed Riot to contemplate allotting a few of its power capability to artificial intelligence. Last week, Riot said it was launching a proper evaluation of potential AI/high-performance computing uses for its remaining power capability at its Corsicana, Texas facility.
Riot, which is value about $3.8 billion, last yr sought to take over rival miner Bitfarms however the two didn’t comply with a sale, as a substitute agreeing on changes to Bitfarms’ board.
Shares in Riot closed at $10.95 on Tuesday, having climbed 5% because the start of the yr.
Hopes have been high within the crypto industry that the sector will profit throughout the Trump administration, which has sent encouraging signals that regulations is perhaps relaxed.
D.E. Shaw, best known for employing quantitative investment tools to power returns, sometimes pursues an activist strategy but rarely runs public boardroom fights, preferring to barter with firms out of the limelight.
The fund took a position in Air Products and Chemicals late last yr and agreed with activist investor Mantle Ridge Capital that the commercial gases company’s chief executive needed to get replaced and that its capital needs to be allocated otherwise.
But as a substitute of pushing its own board candidates, D.E. Shaw in October threw its weight behind Mantle Ridge, which proposed 4 directors and saw three elected to the nine-member board last week.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Recent York; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)