Left unfettered, the markets have a pretty good track record of backing the optimal choice. Call it the wisdom of the crowd, or, less charitably, regression toward the mean.

The markets are weighing in now on two corporate battles of concern to Los Angeles. In one, Michael Ferro, controlling shareholder of Los Angeles Times parent Tribune Publishing Co., is fending off an unwanted takeover attempt by Gannett Co. In the other, Sumner Redstone’s family and lieutenants are at war over how Viacom will be controlled after his death.

Neither is a particularly edifying struggle, though the Tribune tussle at least gets points for not drifting into the tawdry.

The fights have sent the shares in the two companies in different directions – Viacom has experienced a bump while Tribune Publishing has seen a slump – yet the signals are the same: Shareholders want a change.

Viacom saw a 10 percent increase after the ailing Redstone gathered himself enough to dump CEO Phillipe Dauman from the trust that will oversee his holdings after his death. Dauman had made noise about selling off a piece of Paramount Pictures, a move that apparently reinvigorated Redstone enough to push the executive out of his trusteeship. Shareholders apparently agreed with Redstone – or at least that Dauman was the wrong one to be in charge of such a valuable asset.

Over at Tribune, Ferro engineered a deal that bolstered his hold on the company by bringing in Patrick Soon-Shiong as the No. 2 stakeholder in a $15-a-share deal. It was a rebuff both to Gannett, which had offered to buy the company at that price, and to Oaktree Capital Management, the erstwhile No. 2 shareholder that wanted to take the Gannett deal. The market voted for change here, too, driving Tribune shares down below $12.

Undeterred, the Tribune board changed the corporate name to tronc (not a typo) Inc. at its June 2 meeting. Shares slipped further in after-hours trading after the announcement.

Regression toward the mean, or a renewed plea for change?