Callouts & quotes from 902+ activist slides

"The majority of ROVI’s limited “growth” in “core” product revenue is due to subscriber growth at ROVI’s customers, not ROVI acquiring new customers or selling new products"

"Under Mr. Gallogly's leadership, LyondellBasell created tremendous value for its shareholders and significantly outperformed both the chemicals and broader market indices"

"We believe an increase in the discount of the secondary offering from 5.8% to 11% shows increasing investor skepticism as the largest shareholder continues selling shares"

"We believe an increase in the discount of the secondary offering from 5.8% to 11% shows increasing investor skepticism as the largest shareholder continues selling shares"

"Under Mr. Gallogly's leadership, LyondellBasell created tremendous value for its shareholders and significantly outperformed both the chemicals and broader market indices"

"It appears that Solvency II did not anticipate negative bond yields, as holding debt with locked in negative yields can’t possibly be safer than selling and holding cash."

"Our thesis remains unchanged: that ONP is a fraud and thus we maintain our “Strong Sell” rating in light of the following items we detailed in our initial research report"

"“the Chinese authorities suspended the registration and approval of direct selling amid a nationwide crackdown on wrongdoing in the health products market” — Unattributed"

"We worry when we read sell-side research that crafts bull case arguments with data points that have been directly contradicted by company management or our own research."

"Mettler has exceeded sell-side quarterly EPS targets 100% of the time since 2008, and by no coincidence, management has always met 100% of its annual cash bonus targets."

"We don't believe Mettler's share repurchase strategy is disciplined, particularly as it buys its stock at 26x EBITDA and 37x book value, and while insiders rapidly sell."

"So how does Herbalife sell so much of its unadvertised, commodity products at such inflated prices? Answer: Herbalife bundles its products with a ‘business opportunity.’"

"Activist short sellers" borrow shares, sell them for 50 euros and then think about how they can manipulate the price, i.e. how can they make the price fall. — Udo Müller"

"We believe HIMS is an e-commerce business selling generic products and services and currently trades at a large premium to peers as a result of its high revenue growth."

"In terms of profitability (or lack thereof), Carvana has historically made money selling used car loans at a premium while losing a tremendous amount selling used cars."

"I think buyer commissions are going to become unbundled from seller commissions and buyers are going to have to pay their own agents directly. — Former Senior Executive"

"Tessera's current strategy of developing and selling products in Digital Optics creates a clear conflict as customers for Digital Optics may also be licensing targets."

"We reached out to the review sellers, masquerading us as interested customers and asked for their service to buy “about 100 5-star reviews per month” for our business."

"In fact, nowhere do we see Generac listed among “Top Rated”, “Best Seller” or “Trending” among our searches at leading U.S. retailers including Home Depot and Lowe’s."

"Spruce Point believes WSP’s sell-side promoters are taking management’s results at face value and not critically evaluating the results with greater analytical rigor."

"Moreover, we struggle to comprehend the market's willingness to ascribe a SaaS revenue multiple to a company that neither developed or owns the product it is selling."

""So the (specialty) cartons business is a little less than 10% of sales now. It's a global business. It's predominantly selling tobacco cartons." — Amcor CEO Response"

"Spruce Point estimates that there are upwards of 41,000 people selling C3's product suite. Yet, its revenue results imply a meager $5,100 of revenue per salesperson."

"In the same period of suspiciously increasing its GTV claims, LSPD materially changed its number of “Certified Resellers” from 200+ to 150+ in the month of Feb 2014."

"Samsara's valuation defies any reasonable explanation other than sell-side promoters and investors buying into the Kool-Aid that it is a world leading SaaS company."

"But this all worked because the data they were selling was based on choosing the exact patients they wanted. A lot of it was just biased. It wasn’t real-world data."

"Brendel and Ryans hypothesis that defamation lawsuits against short sellers are predominantly a “bluffing strategy” is strongly supported by our empirical findings."

"While ADP would report 3.7% total client growth under this scenario, client mix-adjusted revenue would be flat (before sell-in, price, pays-per-control, mix, etc.)"

"Even if sell-side margin expansion estimates include assumed M&A, future acquisitions are unlikely to be sufficient to support consensus margin expansion estimates"

"Lasertec explicitly declined to disclose it as a related-party transaction, stating “Nothing of note” for “Existing relationships between the seller and Lasertec.”"

"A former senior Zillow employee we spoke with called the Super App a glorified CRM and a former Zillow Senior Executive called it a bit of an eye roll or oversell."

"Insiders have unloaded hundreds of millions of dollars in stock, but the selling has been most aggressive in the past two quarters after “optically” good results."

"Sell-side estimates are now imputing FY23 growth of 40% for C3.ai customers outside of the Baker Hughes JV. Prior to the 3rd amendment, the imputed growth was 18%"

"Selling cheap imitations of more expensive brands has turned Dollarama into one of Canada's most successful retailers, earning it big bucks and plenty of lawsuits"

"This is highly alarming – shareholders need to trust that management will provide equal access to sell-side analysts and that sell-side analysts will be unbiased."

"Imagine you're trying to sell this battery to Apple. We want you to put it in your phone, but when you charge the phone, the battery is going to get 40% thicker."

"Rollins Has Relied Heavily On M&A To Grow, But No Sell-Side Analysts Are Talking About The Billions Of Dollars From Private Equity Money Flooding Into The Sector"

"Are we really to believe that Carvana operates just one business, and that originating/selling subprime auto loans is not economically different from auto sales?"

"There is an approximately US$250 million discrepancy between what AMT claims to have paid for the acquisition of towers in Brazil, and the actual selling price."

"All seller-financed transactions—Onboard Trusts 1 through 8, Skyfi Trust, CSS PL 2023-1, and the Q3 and Q4 2024 “sales”—seem to fail all three ASC 860 criteria."

"Sell-side promoters have relied on DV management's story that the international opportunity is large and growing fast. However, we believe the opposite is true."

"If New Red Lobster were to trade at 6-7x EBITDA, as projected by many sell-side analysts, then approximately $850 million of real estate value could be trapped."

"If New Red Lobster were to trade at 6-7x EBITDA, as projected by many sell-side analysts, then approximately $850 million of real estate value could be trapped."

"“We’re basically selling our identity soul to a private company, who’s then going to be the gatekeeper ... everywhere one goes.” — Kaliya Young, identity expert"

"The inescapable conclusion we draw from AtriCure’s financials is that developing and selling surgical ablation devices is a structurally unprofitable business."

"Spruce Point believes two key sell-side assumptions are flawed. First, JP Morgan's claim that 70% of handle comes from the NFL is inconsistent with state data."

""[U]ncertainties relating to interpretation and enforcement of legislation in China governing direct selling and anti-pyramiding" — Herbalife Q1'2017 Form 10-Q"

"We believe Magnite’s shares represent an incredibly poor risk / reward. The current sell-side consensus price is $21.71 which is ~20% below the current price."

"Is it possible that PGNY inflated the amount of member lives that would be added from the 2022 selling season to cover up for an underwhelming selling season?"

"The number of times PDN was hyped by the CEO and sell-side on the recent Q3 earnings call - 19 mentions of PDN - is suggestive of its importance to the story."

"The lack of entertainment sector expertise among Sony's sell-side analysts may explain the wide skew in valuation methodologies, multiples, and target prices"

"a recent search of sell-side research covering Nidec yielded the words “synergy” and “synergies” in 153 Nidec reports over the past five years. — Alpha-Sense"

"Tempus insiders have not waited long since the IPO in April 2024 to start selling stock. In fact, each of the top 5% stockholders have recently sold shares."

"Spruce Point believes the Street is structurally too bullish on PowerSchool's prospects, which is reflected by the Company's lack of "sell" recommendations."

""Expedia to Spin Off TripAdvisor" — Scott Morrison, Wall Street Journal. "Barry Diller sells shares in TripAdvisor, steps down as chairman" — Business News."

"Given its super-premium market positioning and well-above industry average growth potential, Worldpac would likely sell for or trade at a premium multiple."

"Van Houtte’s operating expenses (which include Selling and Operating Expense and General and Administrative Expenses) ran at approximately 40% of net sales"

"We are exercising caution around the industry's recent acceleration of the direct selling or door-to-door sales channels through independent sales dealers."

"On November 17th, Allergan agreed to sell to Actavis for $219 per share in cash and stock representing a 75% premium to Pershing Square's initial purchase"

"On November 17th, Allergan agreed to sell to Actavis for $219 per share in cash and stock representing a 75% premium to Pershing Square's initial purchase"