Activist Investor Jesse Cohn Isn’t Bluffing Anymore

The next time Jesse Cohn makes a buyout offer for a technology company, it won’t be dismissed as a bluff.

Cohn, who runs U.S. activist investments at hedge fund Elliott Management, is infamous throughout technology board rooms for offering to acquire a company to force an auction -- a tactic that has proved lucrative. Now, he’s starting an Elliott Management private-equity strategy that will give those offers an added heft, people with knowledge of the matter said.