Franklin Templeton: an old-school stockpicker tries to reinvent itself

Jenny Johnson was at the movies with her kids when her phone rang. She stepped into a theatre lobby smelling like popcorn to answer the $4.5bn call.

“What’s your final number,” said Nelson Peltz. The activist investor had a 10 per cent stake in Legg Mason, the asset manager that Johnson’s family firm Franklin Templeton was trying to acquire, and Peltz was pushing for a higher price.