Activist hedge funds have been hit hard by the slowdown in the private equity industry. November in fact was nothing short of a debacle. The Financial Times notes the event-driven sector had dropped 4.3 per cent so far this month (Hedge Fund Research) with several big-name firms suffering double-digit losses. Only long-short equity traders fared worse in November. JPMorgan's Highbridge's Event Driven fund is among the big losers, down 13 percent. One might have thought that such finds would have been nimble enough to staunch the losses and even profit from the crunch. I'm sure some have. Most will likely sense whole new vulture-like opportunities.  

For more:
- here's the Financial Times article