‘Dead Hand’ Slows Activist Meister $2.9 Billion REIT Buyout Bid

All company founders will fight to keep their jobs, maybe none more so than Barry Portnoy and his son Adam.

The Portnoys are chairman and president of CommonWealth REIT, a Newton, Massachusetts, trust founded in 1986 that owned $7.2 billion of office and industrial properties as of March 31. Their legal and corporate governance tactics have so far thwarted a three-month-old attempt by Keith Meister’s Corvex Management LP and Jeff Blau’s Related Fund Management LLC to either buy the trust for $2.9 billion or evict its board. The activist investors argue the stock is depressed by excessive fees paid to an outside management company owned by the Portnoys and poor corporate governance.