“Hess’ dreadful long-term performance speaks for itself,” Elliott wrote in a letter that it distributed widely and shopped to the national press.

Like Cabela’s, Hess’ stock had been a laggard. The stock fell about 10 percent in 2012 in a year when the stock market as a whole was up nearly 6 percent. (When Elliott announced its Cabela’s stake in October, the retailer’s stock had fallen 37 percent in 2015 to that point.)

When Hess refused to play ball, a lengthy proxy fight ensued in which Elliott rounded up Hess shareholders and asked them to vote its way — not Hess management’s way.

Even the threat of a fight for shareholder votes led to a detente just hours before the vote was to take place: Hess agreed to split apart some of its business, carving off the Hess gas stations that helped make the company a household name on the East Coast. It agreed to add three of five of Elliott’s nominated directors. It also proposed a slate of its own. Combined, nine out of 14 directors were replaced, according to “Hess: The Last Oil Baron,” a book about the company by Bloomberg News writers.

But proxy contests are expensive for both sides, and Elliott is known for heading down a path of engagement with company management, if the company is willing, before jumping to a confrontation, those in the industry say.