Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"The JV structure creates substantial immediate value, akin to raising equity at a massive premium to the current market price, while highlighting the value of Macy’s real estate ownership, and preserving the optionality for future value creation, financial flexibility, and reduced risk."

"The Medical Manager fraud scheme ran from 1997 to 2003. Schlanger first evaluated Medical Manager as the primary deal executive in 1999 and later evaluated and executed additional deals as part of Medical Manager and WebMD during an additional four years that the scheme was perpetrated."

"Surgeons and OPO’s indicate that off-label misuse for convenience is now taking a more extreme turn, leading to injured and lost organs: “back to base” use where centers retrieve the organ in an ice cooler, and then put it on the pump back at the hospital for convenience and scheduling."

"Step 6: TIP REIT pays a taxable dividend (at the dividend tax rate to non-corporate taxpayers) to shareholders equal to its allocated portion of Target’s $16bn of retained Earnings and Profits (“E&P”), estimated to be $8bn based on the implied mid-point valuation of TIP REIT/Target Corp"

"Should we be correct that SOFI's balance sheet excludes the $312 million of borrowings, which would likely have resulted from intentional management misconduct, it is entirely possible that Deloitte will resign as auditor while stating that SOFI's prior financials cannot be relied upon."

"Given INOD’s precarious liquidity position and limited access to capital, the PR-driven rise in its share price, and the significant amount of insider sales in the last nine months, we believe a highly dilutive equity raise at a significant discount to its current share price is likely."

""The custom at Imagineering has been to start the creative process with the boldest, wildest, best idea one can come up with. Many Imagineers consider this to be the true beginning of the design process and operate under the notion that if it can be dreamt, it can be built." — Wikipedia"

"(5) A project is “in development” when construction on the project has commenced. A project in “pre-development” has land-use entitlements but is still under internal evaluation or requires one or more additional permits prior to the commencement of construction. — Source: JOE 2007 10-K"

"“Our ability to adapt, evolve, and grow has generated a total return of 9,000% for our shareholders since our IPO in 1999. That is well in excess of the S&P 500 return of 490% and representative of a business model serving all our stakeholders” — CEO Larry Fink, 2024 Letter to investors"

"<A - Michael T. Sicoli>: Yeah. I would say the key is, when we think about M&A generally, there's a three-pronged approach... I do also want to put out we've just - sort of some late breaking news, while we're sitting here, we did just close the Interoute deal. So... — Michael T. Sicoli"

"“I still have many friends there, and the mood isn't so great”; “much harder to gain traction”; not having “much of an impact”; “having a substantial amount of success at winning back the customers”; “20 different companies developing different technologies.” — Competitors and Customers"

"The Dairy Division (UK) maintained its position as the largest manufacturer of branded cheese in the United Kingdom, mainly with its market-leading Cathedral City brand, as well as its position as a top manufacturer of dairy spreads with market-leading Clover brand. — 2021 Annual Report"

"Others have very limited success with the added value service model in Australia, and it is difficult to see why Agrium will do any better. And the house brand road is littered with casualties — Business Spectator, 10/3/10 (commenting upon Agrium's announced acquisition of AWB Landmark)"

"A Belgian court, which found Herbalife to be operating a pyramid scheme, dismissed the notion that distributors can be classified as customers — Test-Aankoop v. Herbalife International Belgium [Comm. Ct. Brussels], Nov. 23, 2011, AR 2004/7787, No. JC-DC/27 [Jee] (Belg.), slip op. at 11."

""Our ability to adapt, evolve, and grow has generated a total return of 9,000% for our shareholders since our IPO in 1999. That is well in excess of the S&P 500 return of 490% and representative of a business model serving all our stakeholders" — CEO Larry Fink, 2024 Letter to investors"

"[O]ur continued focus on worldwide crude oil related and large natural gas liquefaction projects, especially those related to the development of deepwater fields off West and East Africa, the eastern Mediterranean region and increased activity in the Gulf of Mexico. — CLB Annual Reports"

""Conventional numerical targets are easy to manage because the degree of achievement is clear, but I had long felt that they did not fit in with Kao's culture, which values the clash of different qualities and challenges that we have fostered." — President Hasebe, August 2021, Sentankyo"

"SKUs have doubled over the past 10 years. The reason was to increase sales... — Jefferies, September 1, 2023; There are too many SKUs, and I would say around 20% are not contributing to profitability or sales at all. — Former President, EMEA, Kao Corp., Interview with Oasis, August 2023"

"On July 16, 2007, DZH Limited acquired all of the issued and outstanding stock and ownership of HBOP and placed such shares in trust with Zhenyong Liu, Xiaodong Liu, and Shuangxi Zhao, pursuant to a trust agreement executed as of the same date. [emphasis added] — Orient Paper, Inc. 10-Q"

""Most of Zillow's clients feel that Zillow will become less important to their lead generation efforts in the next 1 to 2 years. 60% of Zillow's Premier Agent client surveys stated that the value of the product is declining, and 5% said it's improving." — CoStar CEO, Q3'23 Earnings Call"

"Licensing of intellectual property is of critical importance to our business. For example, we license patents (some of which are foundational patents) and other intellectual property from the University of Maryland and Duke University on an exclusive basis. — IonQ 10Q filing for Q3 2021"

"We believe Evoqua and Xylem have misstated their interconnectedness. Evoqua CEO Keating said that Xylem was never a competitor, but more of a partner. Yet, his own employment agreement listed Xylem as a restricted enterprise and Xylem listed Evoqua as a competitor in its Annual Report."

"It is crucial, Elliott wrote, that the Board understand that Southwest’s leadership has already lost the trust of its shareholders, and that shareholders simply do not believe this Board and management team are capable of devising and executing a bold new plan to turn around Southwest."

"WSP has cumulatively misforecast net capex by approximately $146 million since 2020. This level of misforecasting is even more surprising given it spent approximately $4.3 billion on acquisitions during the same period which significantly grew the scale and footprint of its operations."

"Arora reported potential income tax evasion by WSP entities in India through five emails sent under the Whistleblower mechanism from September 2018 to January 2019. Despite assurances of protection against retaliation in the company's code of conduct, he was dismissed on June 11, 2019."

"Without limiting our ability to propose different agenda items, we currently intend to propose resolutions at the AGM removing Bertrand Kan (Chairman), Peter Shore and Alexandra Reich as directors and appoint Jonathan Amouyal (of TCI) as a director and potentially additional directors."

"O Realty's management team is comprised of a diversified group of investment bankers – skilled in the art of financial engineering. Prior to joining O Realty, none of its top management team have had much experience rolling-up their sleeves and managing real estate at the ground level."

"How can HIMS claim “clinical excellence” when most interactions involve automated chart reviews followed by a check by a physician. Also, a former executive corroborated that the HIMS systems simply allowed users to change any questionnaire answers that resulted in prescription denial."

"Instead of embracing responsible governance and a spirit of collaboration, Mr. Kelly and Mr. Jordan have resorted to entrenchment tactics – so-called “poison pills,” one-off announcements of long-overdue changes, and a rushed, unilateral Board refreshment process that lacks legitimacy."

"Axon has not explained why the total cost (land lease purchase + prepaid rent) increased 25%. Also, recall it said total capex of $12 - $15m in 2019. Does this mean its total capex budget will be just to purchase land, and its operating business requires no growth or maintenance capex?"

"Looking carefully, we see that at the time Axon started ramping up its inventory reserves, it also stopped providing standard disclosure about inventory “Work-in-Process” which it listed at just $100k for two years, and paints the picture that it literally has no production in-process."

"Investors ascribe CHD the highest valuation in the consumer products sector, mostly on the misplaced belief that its growth is fastest among peers, but fail to account for the low quality contribution from acquisitions, and recent price increases that have temporarily boosted revenues."

"We intend to vote “AGAINST” George S. Mayes, Jr., Javier Polit and Laurie A. Tucker at the 2025 Annual Meeting to hold them accountable for their missteps and to send a message to the Board that shareholders will not tolerate more episodes of avoidable value destruction at Forward Air."

"BR promotes itself as a “Global Fintech Leader”. But in reality, we believe at least 40% of its revenues are tied to mundane, low-valued added business process outsourcing (BPO) activities such as printing and distributing business statements, some of which carries literally no margin."

"PGNY's client base is skewed toward large technology companies and other knowledge workers. Most of these companies are located in major metropolitan areas where quality healthcare is more accessible, and the employee demographics at these companies do not mirror the general workforce."

"Note that the announcement states that these farms were designed for beef ranching, which strongly suggests that the farms were never intended to be operated by Huishan, and that the plan all along had been to use Huishan investors’ money to build beef cattle ranches for Chairman Yang."

"If inventory and working capital growth is a signal of Cintas’ flourishing business, as suggested by the CFO’s recent quote, then investors’ should be concerned that inventory growth has slowed for three quarters. Inventory growth historically outpaced sales by an uncomfortable amount."

"CLEAR's CAO worked with Ubiquiti's CFO and CAO Kevin Radigan for years prior while at Tunstall Americas. Mr. Radigan was named in the securities lawsuit. Ubiquiti reported a massive "error" in registered users covering the period that both Liu and Radigan held key roles at the company."

"The OPO expressed fury, stating that TransMedics conduct resulted in wasted organs that were viable and could have saved lives, by refusing access to the device unless they commit to paying for multiple aircraft and “mystery fees” – what a reasonable person may label textbook extortion"

"Using the Wayback Machine, we have carefully analyzed LSPD’s customer and GTV disclosures leading up the IPO. There is evidence the growth of the business was stalling. A new CFO was hired while headlines touted “explosive growth” at Lightspeed, and disclosures ceased ahead of the IPO."

"We find it hard to believe that within 34 days, the property went from an empty piece of land to a complete set of buildings, and thus have to assume that the $312,500 was the valuation of the land plus buildings, which implies that IIPR purchased the property at a significant premium."

"It is crucial, Elliott wrote, that the Board understand that Southwest's leadership has already lost the trust of its shareholders, and that shareholders simply do not believe this Board and management team are capable of devising and executing a bold new plan to turn around Southwest."

"If you don't change, you die... If things change faster outside your company than they change inside your company, you've got something to worry about... What we're talking about here is your future. If you don't change, you won't have one. — Southwest Founder Herb Kelleher, March 2014"

""in the future, consistent with the Company's Corporate Governance Guidelines it is the Board of Director's intention to separate the positions of Chair and CEO and that the position of Chair shall be held by an independent director on the Board of Directors." — Office Depot 2011 Proxy"

""[the Procept rep and I] have coffee after the [procedure] and I'm like 'You selling any robots?', and what they said to me is, 'well, we're renting them out now.' Renting is slang. It could mean they're giving them away...That was nine months ago." — Major Hospital Urologist, Nov 2024"

"If you don't change, you die... If things change faster outside your company than they change inside your company, you've got something to worry about... What we're talking about here is your future. If you don't change, you won't have one. — Southwest Founder Herb Kelleher, March 2014"

"The tech reading the tracings is often incorrect. They will call "VT" when it is clearly aberrantly-conducted SVT. I've seen many bradycardic rhythms also described incorrectly. Clinical context also matters which non-clinicians are unable to integrate. — Cardiologist Survey Respondent"

"So our first primary focus around Software as a Service really is around the retail associate. We've got lots of other software offerings around RFID, around a robotic solution and others, but we've talked about it being more retail focus today. — CEO Burns, MS Conference March 6, 2023"

"Competitors haven't succeeded because they make better products than Kao. They have succeeded because they are better at understanding the needs and aspirations of their customers, then selling and marketing those needs and aspirations to their customers through their products. — Oasis"

"During fiscal year 2022, the company announced that it had begun to shift enterprise customers to contracts billed annually, and that it had assumed fiscal 2023 enterprise contracts would be billed annually. The company subsequently determined, however, — Autodesk May 31, 2024 Form 8-K"

"“You can’t call it ‘bought’, you can’t call it ‘bought’. It was just kind of cooperation.” — A former Guangzhou Changing Edu teacher (2015-2016) and now head of a GZ 1-1 school since 2016. “It was not purchased, there was just cooperation.” — A former GZ 1-1 Head of School (2012-2016)."

"IF YOU DON'T CHANGE, YOU DIE... IF THINGS CHANGE FASTER OUTSIDE YOUR COMPANY THAN THEY CHANGE INSIDE YOUR COMPANY, YOU'VE GOT SOMETHING TO WORRY ABOUT... WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT HERE IS YOUR FUTURE. IF YOU DON'T CHANGE, YOU WON'T HAVE ONE. — Southwest Founder Herb Kelleher, March 2014"

"In summary, the dissident has assembled a strong slate, which has the experience and independence that PSX requires. — ISS; Elliott’s nominees possess a strong mix of best-in-class industry expertise and experience and have the potential to unlock value for shareholders... — Egan-Jones"

"IF YOU DON'T CHANGE, YOU DIE... IF THINGS CHANGE FASTER OUTSIDE YOUR COMPANY THAN THEY CHANGE INSIDE YOUR COMPANY, YOU'VE GOT SOMETHING TO WORRY ABOUT... WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT HERE IS YOUR FUTURE. IF YOU DON'T CHANGE, YOU WON'T HAVE ONE. — Southwest Founder Herb Kelleher, March 2014"

"We do not believe this adjustment is appropriate as it represents a material element of your customer arrangement (i.e., a sales incentive) and could lead investors to improperly infer that you would have generated the same revenue levels without granting this incentive. — SEC Response"

"In August 2019, we issued a $2.4 billion cash dividend to Playtika Holding UK. In September 2019, we distributed all of our shares in LaGuardia Venture Limited, or LaGuardia, an investment company which made investments of $400 million in 2018, to Playtika Holding UK. — PLTK Prospectus"

"“The accounts [to brush orders] are all fake. The [GSX] platform gave us more than 10 accounts, plus the ones our own employees applied, it’s over 20 accounts. For one class, we would purchase amounts from RMB 20,000 to 50,000,” stated by the company. — Anonymous education company boss"

"RELY only reports period changes in transaction expense drivers such as direct costs and loss reserves. When we analyze the annual increases in these costs relative to annual increase in revenue and send volume, we see that trends mostly worsened in 2024 after a period of improvement."

"Spruce Point conducted an interview with a former senior Nuvei employee who was at the Company prior to, and after the closing of SafeCharge. The interview reveled multiple challenges with the acquisition. In addition, suspicions of accounting changes to boost performance were raised."

"So, what’s driving the massive increase in DSOs? 70% of systems are being placed at large hospitals, and we doubt that the Company’s lower volume hospital customers electing to purchase a relatively expensive single-indication system are so troubled as to be delaying invoice payments."