Callouts & quotes from 2,101+ activist slides

"“Nelson Peltz and Trian have played an important role in Wendy’s brand transformation and financial improvement. I greatly value the thought leadership and strategic insight that Nelson and the Trian team provide. Nelson and Trian are passionate advocates for the brand’s growth and success. We work collaboratively on key strategic decisions and our company benefits from Trian’s insight on financial and global opportunities.” —Emil J. Brolick, President and CEO, The Wendy’s Company"

"Nelson Peltz and Trian have played an important role in Wendy’s brand transformation and financial improvement. I greatly value the thought leadership and strategic insight that Nelson and the Trian team provide. Nelson and Trian are passionate advocates for the brand’s growth and success. We work collaboratively on key strategic decisions and our company benefits from Trian’s insight on financial and global opportunities. — Emil J. Brolick, President and CEO, The Wendy’s Company"

"Nelson Peltz and Trian have played an important role in Wendy’s brand transformation and financial improvement. I greatly value the thought leadership and strategic insight that Nelson and the Trian team provide. Nelson and Trian are passionate advocates for the brand’s growth and success. We work collaboratively on key strategic decisions and our company benefits from Trian’s insight on financial and global opportunities. — Emil J. Brolick, President and CEO, The Wendy’s Company"

"Under CEO Mike Hennigan, MPC has shown the most visible improvement among their peers over the past 3 years in both reliability, unit cost and profitability... — Scotiabank, June 30, 2023; Marathon has been our top refining pick since initiating on the group in June 2022. Shares have led peers, driven by cost/ commercial improvements and peer (and energy sector) leading capital returns, funded by strong refining margins and Speedway divestiture proceeds. — BMO, November 30, 2023"

"Under CEO Mike Hennigan, MPC has shown the most visible improvement among their peers over the past 3 years in both reliability, unit cost and profitability... — Scotiabank, June 30, 2023; Marathon has been our top refining pick since initiating on the group in June 2022. Shares have led peers, driven by cost/ commercial improvements and peer (and energy sector) leading capital returns, funded by strong refining margins and Speedway divestiture proceeds. — BMO, November 30, 2023"

"“at the early stage of their product, they had big trouble with the light source”; “they were struggling” because of the short lifespan “and then it needed replacement and after replacement they needed one month to tune the light source...so the tool was only available for maybe 60% or 70%...customers needed to buy more equipment than they originally planned to cover their requirements.” — Longtime, senior semicap equipment executive in Japan who is friendly with Lasertec’s CEO"

""This is a strange and irregular transaction that is simply not comparable to any other transaction I have seen in over 45 years of observing the 'merger and acquisition' marketplace. A CEO of the target [Xerox], facing likely ouster, serves as the loyal agent of the acquirer, designing a deal that is too good to be true: a cheap price, little governance protections, no market check, and a process that ignores other bidders." — John C. Coffee Jr., Columbia Law School professor"

"We expect Demand Manager revenue to exceed $5 million in 2020. — MGNI CEO, Q4 2019; From a revenue side, I think we're not formally updating our guidance. But we -- there's a big enough hole here that we don't expect to hit those levels this year. — MGNI CFO, Q2 2020; We thought that it was going to be long sales cycle to begin with or a long path to maturation for Demand Manager. Think about it, we're competing against the free product. — MGNI CEO, Stephens Conf, Nov 19, 2020"

"Third, the transaction structure will result in the stock being listed on two major global exchanges, the NYSE and the ASX. And through these listings, we expect there will be greater liquidity for investors as the market capitalisation of the combined company, which we estimate at US$17 billion, is expected to qualify for inclusion in the US S&P500 index, while the Australian listed shares will also continue to be included in the ASX 200 index. — CEO Dalia Deal Call Aug 2018"

"We believe the spin-off, which is the result of an in-depth review of strategic alternatives by our Board and management, will allow both companies to enhance value by allocating capital and deploying resources in a more focused way, while preserving and increasing synergies within their businesses. At the same time, it will position the new security company to build scale and make the necessary investments for the future. — Michael W. Lamach, IR Chairman & CEO, Dec. 10, 2012"

"I thought Dave Moehring ran things very well. I was shocked to hear that he was fired. I thought he was a great CEO when I was there. He was one of the main people who avoided the quantum hype. He was very grounded in what we can do and what they should pitch that they're doing. I guess he wasn't hype enough. And then this guy came in and just set up a SPAC, just to go public. I can imagine people would be concerned about that. — Ex-IonQ employee, member of technical staff"

""We think that this business -- that parts of this business are very attractive from a growth basis. There's tremendous synergy with our existing business." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, February 2006; "When you look at this [Textile Effects], just kind of this box of chemistry, where there is overlap, there is synergy and so forth, textile effects, it's kind of somewhat outside of that, we don't share a common chemistry..." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, May 2016"

""Why don't we take ads? I think the format of ads on mobile phones is not mature yet. Furthermore, there is a fundamental conflict between our safety service, by its very nature, and the advertising model. If you want to target ads accurately, there will be privacy issues." — Yu Lin, NQ founder and chairman. "Q1 is typically seasonally lower in enterprise and advertising. Yet we are seeing continued strength in these businesses, sequentially." — Omar Sharif Khan, Co-CEO."

"“So, I really think the government is going to come in, and they're really going to shake this up, and I think the glory days of we're going to charge $100,000 for a TransMedics device, and you have to use our people, and you've got to use our expensive jet - I think all that is over. I think the gravy train is coming to an end, honestly. I think the government is going to really come in.” — CEO of a major OPO (Organ Procurement Organization), longtime industry executive"

"Firstly, we do not intend to pursue synergies through a reduction in sales and marketing or R&D costs. — Amcor Deal Call Aug 6, 2018; There's no fundamental change in our level of R&D spending. It's on the contrary; if anything, we've probably spent a bit more. — Amcor FY Earnings Call CEO Sept 6, 2018; Firstly, the R&D infrastructure that will really help us turbocharge the product development efforts is a little bit uneven. — Amcor FY Earnings Call CEO Nov 19, 2019"

"The CEO alleged practices almost identical to those indicated by ex-TransMedics employees: “they’ll fly planes in from like Arizona and to do stuff in New York because they can charge for all that...they’ll also pay the transplant program or pay somebody, whoever makes the decisions...they’ll give them a kickback to use their transplant logistics services even though they’re excessively more expensive...because whoever makes the decision is getting a piece of that.”"

"“We look for geographic expansion in the admixture Ready Mix business and then we're trying to sell additional high value products through that distribution...It's a large fragmented market and where you have to have the density or the geography level in order to service the customers, right. It's a high cost to serve model with dispensing tanks, technical service organization, dispenser technicians, all of those things complete.” — Greg Poling, Former CEO, May 2016"

""I said to another CEO, who I won't name who had called me and inquired about Nelson, that if I were to form the board today, Nelson would be one of the first directors I'd ask to serve because he is an insightful, communicative, enthusiastic, energetic and available director." — William R. Johnson, Former Chairman and CEO, H. J. Heinz Company, current Director of Emerson Electric Co., United Parcel Service, Inc. and PepsiCo, Inc., and current Trian Advisory Partner"

"As we look ahead to 2025, we remain steadfast in executing on our vision. We are a growth company with no shortage of growth opportunities. We will unlock value for new customer use cases, including seafarers, micro-businesses, and high-amount senders, all of whom have distinct needs that we are uniquely positioned to serve. We can serve additional use cases with minimal incremental investment given the strength of our platform. — Remitly CEO, Q4'24 Call (Feb 2025)"

"Mr. Müller sold shares to Matthias Rumpelhardt, business partner of Udo Müller and the former CEO of Ströer. This business was not laid open for years, only when Mr. Rumpelhardt sold the stocks. Ergo the following questions: 1.1 Why did Mr. Rumpelhardt participate in this share transaction? 1.2 Ignoring the legal aspects, why did Mr. Müller not immediately disclose this transaction? 1.3 Do Ströer or management still maintain business relations with Mr. Rumpelhardt?"

"To build on the foundation of excellence that Tony has laid, we've appointed Thomas Pettit, Xylem's Chief Operations and Supply Chain Officer. Tom joins us next week coming from Generac Power Systems, and he brings 20-plus years of experience leading global supply chains and operations in the industrial and services sectors. We're very pleased to welcome Tom at a time when supply chain and operations continue to be a foundation of competitive advantage. — Xylem CEO"

""I mean, our goal is to establish, Mike, a global leadership position in enterprise AI." — CEO Siebel, Needham Conf, Jan 11, 2022; "So this is a -- clearly, this is a market share game... we want to go out and gobble up as much market share as we possibly can." — CEO Siebel, Annual Virtual Wells Fargo TMT Summit, Dec 2, 2021; "We've established a substantial leadership position in the nascent stage of the enterprise AI market." — CEO Siebel, Q2 2022 Conference Call"

"Our strategy is a transformational change into a midstream logistics company... — Greg Garland, Phillips 66 CEO; I think Midstream will certainly continue to be a growth vehicle for us... I think Refining is a good business. It's just -- long term, I just don't see it growing — Greg Garland, Phillips 66 CEO; Our Midstream organization is moving forward with 2 major growth projects; construction of the Gray Oak Pipeline and expansion of the Sweeny Hub. — Phillips 66"

""But we won't just pay whatever to companies. We're very disciplined. We walk away when the prices are above our ability to deliver value... I think that's why you see the ROIC still consistent year over year over year in spite of the acquisition nature." — CEO Lobo, Q3 2016 Conf Call; "Deals are significantly more expensive. The Stryker name carries a premium to it. I believe we overpay. When I was there I felt like we overpaid for deals." — Former Stryker M&A Pro"

"And then we brought in a very senior executive by the name of Gene Reznik, who was the Chief Strategy Officer at Accenture, here to head up this initiative of coordinating the vertical market partners. So we expect a significant investment here and expect in the coming quarters, there will be additional announcements with these vertical market partners that we think will give us a -- increase our competitive advantage in the market. — CEO Siebel, Q3 2021 Conf Call"

"I said to another CEO, who I won’t name who had called me and inquired about Nelson, that if I were to form the board today, Nelson would be one of the first directors I’d ask to serve because he is an insightful, communicative, enthusiastic, energetic and available director. — William R. Johnson, Former Chairman and CEO, H. J. Heinz Company, current Director of Emerson Electric Co., United Parcel Service, Inc. and PepsiCo, Inc., and current Trian Advisory Partner"

"I said to another CEO, who I won’t name who had called me and inquired about Nelson, that if I were to form the board today, Nelson would be one of the first directors I’d ask to serve because he is an insightful, communicative, enthusiastic, energetic and available director. — William R. Johnson, Former Chairman and CEO, H. J. Heinz Company, current Director of Emerson Electric Co., United Parcel Service, Inc. and PepsiCo, Inc., and current Trian Advisory Partner"

""As you have heard us say for a long time, we evaluate the decisions that we make in the business based on the long-term impact to cash flow per share, and AFFO is the best proxy for this." — CEO Jay Brown, July 2017; "We will focus the majority of our value creation discussion on AFFO per share. Certainly, we will be making our capital allocation decisions based on our goal of maximizing long-term AFFO per share." — CEO Jay Brown (CFO at the time), January 2012"

"“Shortly following my appointment to the board of Tessera in September 2013, Starboard served notice to Tessera desiring to replace a majority of the Board... Starboard has proven to be highly ethical and constructive in their approach to board oversight and governance and, without exception, has done whatever is best for the long-term interests of the company and its shareholders.” — Rick Hill, Chairman of Tessera Technologies and former CEO of Novellus Systems"

"“Shortly following my appointment to the board of Tessera in September 2013, Starboard served notice to Tessera desiring to replace a majority of the Board... Starboard has proven to be highly ethical and constructive in their approach to board oversight and governance and, without exception, has done whatever is best for the long-term interests of the company and its shareholders.” — Rick Hill, Chairman of Tessera Technologies and former CEO of Novellus Systems"

"“We are highly regulated, as we should be. I think that is part of what it means to build and maintain trust with customers, which ultimately is what this business I’ve learned is about.” — Matt Oppenheimer, CEO, Remitly. “We added a value called ‘Lead Authentically.’ I think that’s a key part of my leadership style. And we actually removed a value that was ‘Be Transparent.’ I think authenticity and transparency are different.” — Matt Oppenheimer, CEO, Remitly."

""We significantly expanded this partner ecosystem in Q1, entering an important highly strategic alliance with Google Cloud to allow the entire Google Cloud global sales and service organization to co-sell and service the entire family of C3 AI applications globally. The 2 companies will tightly integrate C3 AI and Google Cloud technologies and go-to-market initiatives with the effect of accelerating enterprise AI adoption." — CEO Siebel, Q1 2022 Conference Call"

""The makings of today's Arconic began when Klaus Kleinfeld was appointed CEO of Alcoa Inc... [the management team's] actions saved the company and set the stage for the successful execution of a multi-year transformation." — Board Letter to Shareholders, February 6, 2017; "We've created Arconic, we've created Alcoa Corporation. In the crisis in 2009 the company had an almost near-death experience. We saved it from this." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, February 1, 2017"

"Let's now review our recent acquisitions. First off, let me say that I'm particularly pleased with the progress we have made in 2022 in becoming the undisputed leader of our industry. We have continued to be active and disciplined on the acquisition front and completed 6 transactions, adding key expertise in high growth sectors such as environment and water, while expanding our offering to clients in the government space amongst others — CEO Year End 2022 Call"

"actinic is not going to be sufficient for mask inspection because sub-resolution assist features will become necessary...those features you cannot detect with actinic light...ultimately an electron beam solution is required...they need features on a mask that are smaller than 13.5nm...higher resolution than EUV is required...and people are working on an electron beam solution...KLA is one of them. — Japanese semiconductor executive friendly with Lasertec's CEO"

"“We’re in a very aggressive hiring spree in Wilsonville” — Emily Leproust. “the production site should be fully up and running in January, Twist CEO Emily Leproust said in a Tuesday interview.” — Local Newspaper. “are complete and the equipment is in place...the equipment is brand new and underdoing various quality checks currently” — Local Newspaper. “once we have that, we’ll be able to start taking orders and ship product, Leproust said.” — Emily Leproust."

""What we have done with the Board is we said, listen, now is a perfect time for us; we are out 120 days. Let's look at all of our margins and see if there are areas we could get a lot more effective. So, leaning a process out from early days of design to where it might be today, leveraging technology that was not available perhaps in the past, using our capital appropriately for that technology I think is important." — Steven Anenen, CDK Global, Former CEO"

"Reflexis is a high-growth, recurring-revenue business with sales of $66 million in 2019, which doubled over a 3-year period. We've known each other for quite a long time. Reflexis has been a premier ISV partner of Zebra's. And we've been in dialogue with them about this transaction for some time. And in terms of customer concentration, Jim, the asset has a low level of concentration of sales towards a few customers. — Former CEO and CFO Q2'20 July 28, 2020"

"“Well, I think they made an effort to move into the international market about the time we made that decision to move into the small cell market. We chose the U.S. business being the best for wireless infrastructure. They, I think, looked out and saw that the tower business is one of the best businesses ever and they would like to take that to different geographies. I think both of those decisions are really good decisions.” — CEO Jay Brown, November 2017"

""And under the watch of Bill Caesar really done a great job of putting in multiple disciplines with that business in transforming that business really over the last 7, 8-years." — Patrick Dovigi, GFL CEO. "disjointed operating footprint and lower margins" — Moody's. "WCA will likely experience significantly lower organic volumes during the second quarter and potentially even later on, which could cause total revenue to contract for the full year." — S&P."

""As a leading integrated downstream energy provider with differentiated but complementary assets in highly attractive markets, we deliver consistent and compelling value for shareholders throughout economic and commodity cycles." — Phillips 66 Management, Phillips66Delivers.com; "[We're] having less volatility than refining peers when refining margins flex to the downside, so we get the best of both worlds." — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, March 6, 2025"

"“When a company is paying us with SaaS fees, they’re paying us around $4 per customer today... $25 is great in terms of what we generate per homebuyer on average.” — Porch CEO, Analyst Day Dec 2021. “Each inspector was paying probably anywhere from a $1 to $3 per inspection to use that software. So if you knew your average lead was worth $14 - $15 bucks you could easily give that product away, and lower your cost of acquisition” — Former Porch Employee."

""We consider the recent drop in NQ Mobile's share price to be artificially created by false allegations and we believe our stock to be currently undervalued," commented Dr. Henry Lin, Chairman and Co-CEO of NQ Mobile. "The plan to purchase NQ Mobile shares by the NQ Mobile senior management team demonstrates our strong confidence in the company and reflects our commitment to executing our business plan and delivering shareholder value." — Dr. Henry Lin"

"Another more recent example is our game business. Our subsidiary Skymoons launched a 3D turn-based mobile game The Croods, which is based on a famous IP licensed from DreamWorks Animation's 2013 popular animated feature film The Croods. The game has performed exceptionally well since it was launched in February, exceeding our expectation. This is another good showcase of our ability to adapt IP into online games. — CEO Gong Yu, IQ Q1 2019 earnings call"

"“while the Company’s Total Shareholder Return performance continues to significantly trail its GICS group, CEO pay is above the ISS selected peer median.” — ISS; “Overall, the Company PAID MORE than its peers, BUT PERFORMED WORSE than its peers.” — Glass Lewis; “shareholders should be deeply concerned with the compensation committee’s sustained failure in this area.” — Glass Lewis; “…we question her continued service on ANY public Board” — Glass Lewis"

"「顧客が光学の装置を併用しているのは、レーザーテック製の装置だけでは十分な成果が得られない、という意味でしょうか。つまり、そのために二つ目の装置を備える必要がある、ということですか」「そうです。しかし、二つ目の装置については、レーザーテックがアクティニック検査装置を実用化する以前も、極端紫外線マスクを検査するために別の方法が必要でした。二つ目にはKLA製の深紫外線光学装置、同社の『Teron』という製品を使いました。ところが、Teronは193ナノメートルの光源を使うので、検出できる欠陥に限界があります。極小の欠陥を明確に検出できません。そのような欠陥の疑いがある場合、座標を記録し、座標を電子ビーム検査装置に移し、欠陥があるとの疑いのある位置を見てみます。欠陥があるとすれば、マスクに転写された回路の画像にあるでしょうか。要はマスクを検査するために、光学の深紫外線と電子ビームを組み合わせる必要があるのです」 — 半導体製造装置企業の上席幹部として長年の経験を持ち、レーザーテックのCEOに親しい人物"

"Our global gold reserves have remained largely unchanged at 5 million ounces, supported by the successful 2016 near mine exploration program which added over 300,000 low cost ounces to the mineral inventory, offsetting mining depletion. We are very excited by the exploration potential that the AGM complex holds and anticipate adding more ounces to our resource base during 2017 from a considerable list of near mine high priority targets. — CEO Breese"

"Along the same lines, with the tremendous potential for expanding our managed services offering in conjunction with our core software offering. Importantly, not only does it drive a better economic relationship with our clients on a win-win basis, but also enhances durability of our financial profile. It makes Enfusion more competitive when it comes to complex conversions for larger hedge funds and institutional managers. — CEO, Q1 2023, May 9, 2023"

"[I]t is unusual for an executive chairman to be compensated at a significantly higher level than the company’s CEO and the proxy does not provide a compelling reason for this arrangement... The proxy does not adequately explain why investors should bear the costs for him to remain the most highly compensated NEO even when his apparent role and responsibilities within the company are reduced. — Institutional Shareholder Services – 2021 Disney Report"

"Thanks for the question. So on OrthoSensor, obviously, it's new under the belt here a few weeks. And so it's not something that we have fully developed all of the various plans in terms of how we're going to market for any of the products at this point in time. — IR Wells, Q4 2020 Conf Call; Nothing new to report at this point. I mean, obviously, it's still fairly new in terms of the acquisition into the organization. — CEO Lobo, Q2 2021 Conf Call"

""If you're not familiar with exocad, they're a 10-year-old innovative software company based in Darmstadt, Germany, growing approximately 20% annually." — Joseph Hogan – Align Technology, CEO; "Trying to make it smoother to integrate Invisalign with dentists restorative treatment. And get more involved with the restorative nuts and bolts. It's a risky play I think with all the other restorative platforms with scanning and milling." — Orthodontist"

""Avgi finds it important to stress that the development workers have no cause for concern. "In deals like this the workers are sometimes a little anxious. I wish to make it very clear: one of the reasons for the deal is the technology, and so the development workers in Israel and Bulgaria should be confident that we shall continue to grow and develop new products."" — SafeCharge CEO (Source: "Safecharge was my baby", Globes Israel, May 23, 2019)"

""Now our direct neighbor there is U.S. Gold Mining Inc., and they are onto the Whistler porphyry copper deposit, of course, copper gold. We have that same geology." — Nova CEO, Nov 13, 2024. "The Whistler Gold-Copper Project is located within the West Susitna Mineral District, which contains established gold, copper and silver mineral resources, plus potential for other critical metals such as antimony and tungsten." — USGO CEO Smith, May 2025."

""We continue to focus on food as a priority . . . [W]e've nearly doubled our commitment to food over a five to seven-year timeframe." — Gregg Steinhafel, CEO, Target 2Q'07 Earnings Call, 8/21/07; "We also continue to invest in our food offering in recognition of its importance in driving greater frequency, increasing guest loyalty, and making Target a preferred shopping destination." — Gregg Steinhafel, CEO, Target 4Q'08 Earnings Call, 2/24/09"

"The average value of each European UAV programme is less than half that of its North American counterpart — recent analysis by two European UAV experts. On the March, 2023 earnings call... CEO Jeffrey Thompson mentioned in the Q&A that 'what we've gathered from our meetings is [CBP] typically has about 400 drones that are in service, and they need to have 200 or so other drones to make sure those 400 always stay in service.' — Jeffrey Thompson"

"As we look ahead to 2025, we remain steadfast in executing on our vision. We are a growth company with no shortage of growth opportunities. We will unlock value for new customer use cases, including seafarers, micro-businesses, and high-amount senders, all of whom have distinct needs that we are uniquely positioned to serve. We can serve additional use cases with minimal incremental investment given the strength of our platform. — Remitly CEO"

"“Its Reputation in Tatters, Southwest Aims to Resume Normal Schedule on Friday” — The New York Times; “U.S. Senators blast Southwest holiday meltdown, labelled ‘unmitigated disaster’” — THOMSON REUTERS; “Southwest Doubles CEO Pay, Neglects Boardroom Risks Despite Crisis” — Forbes; “Southwest Airlines meltdown highlights insular management team” — FORTUNE; “Southwest hit by record $140 million fine for holiday service meltdown in 2022” — CNN"

"“Its Reputation in Tatters, Southwest Aims to Resume Normal Schedule on Friday” — The New York Times; “U.S. Senators blast Southwest holiday meltdown, labelled ‘unmitigated disaster’” — THOMSON REUTERS; “Southwest Doubles CEO Pay, Neglects Boardroom Risks Despite Crisis” — Forbes; “Southwest Airlines meltdown highlights insular management team” — FORTUNE; “Southwest hit by record $140 million fine for holiday service meltdown in 2022” — CNN"

"“...The entire episode has also revealed the limitations of ‘Disney nice.’ Avoiding face-to-face conflict, at least at the CEO and board level, fostered an environment where Iger and Chapek couldn’t hash out their differences. Executives who openly challenged others — Mayer, Rice, McCarthy — were ultimately dinged for their frankness...” — CNBC, Disney’s Wildest Ride: Iger, Chapek and The Making of an Epic Succession Mess, September 6, 2023"

""First, our outcomes continued to significantly outperform the national averages as they have done each year over the past five years. And second, our outcomes have continued to improve each year while the national averages have stayed largely the same over those five years." — Then-CEO David Schlanger on PGNY Q2 2021 Earnings Call; "...the national averages haven't been improving..." — CEO Peter Anevski at 2023 JPMorgan Conference, 1/10/23"