Fuji Media Holdings shares plunged as much as 12% after the embattled Japanese firm announced a large share buyback plan and said entities linked to activist investor Yoshiaki Murakami indicated they would sell their stakes.

The broadcaster¡¯s stock fell to ?3,475 at one point in Tokyo, marking its steepest intraday decline since August 2024. The company announced it plans to repurchase up to ?235 billion ($1.5 billion) of its own shares in a release Tuesday.

The buyback plan marks a potential end to one of Japan¡¯s most high-profile cases of shareholder activism in recent years. The Murakami-led funds said they intend to sell their Fuji Media stakes once the company announced further measures to strengthen shareholder returns, according to Tuesday¡¯s disclosure. Murakami has been campaigning for higher returns and the divestment of Fuji Media¡¯s real estate unit.

Fuji Media¡¯s shares may be falling because ¡°everyone expects that¡¯s the end¡± of Murakami¡¯s campaign and the upside that came with it, said Travis Lundy, a Hong Kong-based equity analyst who focuses on shareholder activism in Japan.

But there¡¯s no guarantee that activists will sell their stakes all at once, especially now the share price has dropped, Lundy added. ¡°Fuji Media is agreeing to act a lot faster and more aggressively on its reform action plan, but it may have jumped the gun,¡± he said.

The company was once Japan¡¯s most competitive broadcaster but has been embroiled in scandal since activist Dalton Investments raised concerns over management¡¯s mishandling of sexual harassment allegations in early 2025.

Fuji Media¡¯s outlook remains cloudy, with uncertainty likely weighing on investor sentiment, said Kenzaburou Yamada, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Intelligence Laboratory. ¡°Competition is growing in the content industry, and it¡¯s difficult to see how they¡¯ll grow in the long term,¡± he said.