Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"If sales growth rates at these acquired businesses rebounded to their prior trajectories in subsequent years, Hill-Rom would have enjoyed artificially higher organic revenue growth during the subsequent years, as it would have been calculated off an artificially lower revenue base."

"By now claiming that only 50% of new product growth is incremental – and, therefore, that legacy business growth is effectively embedded in 50% of new product growth – management is implicitly claiming that the apparent slowdown in the legacy business is not as drastic as it seems."

"Instrument is immature and "kind of like a beta version" despite being launched in 2016; using it is "a major headache," "time consuming," and "tedious"; machine ruins cells in about 1 out of every 5 runs; unusable by other groups at AbbVie due lack of assays and other limitations."

"Competitors with radically cheaper machines have already taken share in each segment BLI has targeted; same capabilities “for a substantially lower capital expenditure”; Abcellera ($5B market cap) is biggest competitor, has a “full stack” solution vs. just selling a screening tool."

"Look familiar? With Zimmer offering hospitals and its customers a robot with no upfront cost, it has made sale more difficult for Stryker. Stryker's response has been to offer its “Joint Value” pricing strategy, and more recently in 2022, to cut prices by approximately -17% to -30%"

"Sixteen executives were indicted, pleaded guilty, and/or were convicted as part of the Medical Manager fraud. We believe Schlanger, Anevski, and Livingston were practically the only executives involved in M&A and finance activities that were not implicated or charged in the scheme."

"Commentary from G&K and its financial projections illustrated how it expected to achieve approximately 3.5% - 5.3% annual revenue growth from 2016 - 2018. Yet, when Cintas issued guidance for FY 2018 including G&K, it implied a -4.2% annual revenue decline at the guidance midpoint!"

"It seems to us as if the Compensation Committee (having no Fortress Directors) waited until after the resignation of the Fortress Directors to disclose that it did not use any of information the compensation consultant provided to benchmark Andy Smith’s compensation as incoming CEO"

"The former senior executive shed some valuable insights on Zillow’s funnel. Based on his commentary, the only area that Zillow can meaningfully improve upon is the mid funnel, or generating more leads per visitor, and increasing the conversion rate of those leads in the Flex model."

"This has resulted in executive compensation at AOL that is approximately 3.4 times the median compensation of an appropriate peer group that fits within the guidelines recommended by both ISS and Glass Lewis, despite poor absolute and relative stock price and financial performance."

"Since Soleno appears to have forgotten to change the fasting glucose graph from the original dataset, we can calculate associated HbA1c values - which suggests to us that the new HbA1c numbers are simply made up to fit a misleading narrative that entry ITT were already prediabetic."

"The board of directors are ultimately responsible for setting strategy, driving execution, and holding management accountable for performance. If the board is not aligned with peer standards, neither will be strategy and performance. Thus, "A Better Kao" starts with a better board."

"How can the CEO, two Board members and the outside legal counsel of DSP be expected to make decisions that benefit DSP, like re-entering the licensing business and competing against CEVA, when they have a substantial economic interest in CEVA that could be harmed by such decisions?"

"These record top-line results are not translating to record profitability, nor the Southwest standard of profitability levels (i.e., Southwest was once a profit leader) ... [Southwest’s margins are] roughly 1,000 basis points below the industry leader. — Deutsche Bank, October 2023"

"“Disingenuous” — Referenced in a 2016 email regarding Chairman and CEO Christopher Franklin. “Financial Expert” — Title given to Audit Chairman Lee C. Stewart. “fraud” and having “many characteristics of a Ponzi scheme” — Bankruptcy trustee description of Fletcher Asset Management."

"“...if they need to hit a number to show a sale, they will force the distributor ..They'll make a deal. They'll cut a deal with the distributor and they'll convert that inventory to distributor owned inventory to show that they met their numbers for the quarter” — A Former Employee"

"For the stock market speculators interested in enriching themselves through manipulation, information arbitrage and a “zero sum” gain, all at the expense of our investors, I am certain that their actions will ultimately catch up with them. — Zheng Cheng, Chairman, CEO and President"

"“Is this a one-time thing, a ten-times thing, or an every time thing? That's unclear. So, you're not sure how many times they had to test until they could get that type of result to put out there. Who knows if the battery can really do that every single time.” — Former R&D employee"

"In 2024, Tecovas will open its first store in the Northeast and two stores in California as well as other locations, Lafitte said. The company has grown from about $1 million in net sales in its first year to more than $200 million in annual net sales, Lafitte said. — David Lafitte"

"These record top-line results are not translating to record profitability, nor the Southwest standard of profitability levels (i.e., Southwest was once a profit leader) ... [Southwest’s margins are] roughly 1,000 basis points below the industry leader. — Deutsche Bank, October 2023"

"A former Camden County, New Jersey, man today admitted perpetrating a long-running scheme to defraud the U.S. Treasury Department of millions of dollars by falsely claiming federal rebates for solar panels his company never installed. — U.S. Attorney's Office District of New Jersey"

"“you put a lot more money into just 9 cents a base pair”; “we found it really hard to make money.”; “investors are subsidizing”; “$20 bill”; “to be honest with you, I’ve never understood.” — Longtime oligo manufacturing expert and executive; ex-Agilent / Ex-senior executive of Gen9"

""Japanese skincare is very hot right now. There is a lot of demand in the UK market for these products – the perception is Japanese products are highly innovative with very good technology." — Former Unilever Prestige Cosmetics Division Brand Director, Oasis interview November 2023"

"These record top-line results are not translating to record profitability, nor the Southwest standard of profitability levels (i.e., Southwest was once a profit leader) ... [Southwest’s margins are] roughly 1,000 basis points below the industry leader. — Deutsche Bank, October 2023"

"Just to talk about Tour Water. I think most of you saw some of the cans here today. We have decided to take the Tour Water brand. It's going through our beer distribution network, which is the CANarchy network. It's sort of -- we think it's very opportune. — CEO Sacks, Jan 16, 2024"

"“To create sales amidst adversities, we shifted from traditional price war to precise marketing by differentiation, and later on to the new model of 'Internet +', which led to a sales miracle of our liquid milk in the sluggish market of dairy products.” — Huishan 2016 Annual Report"

"By 1995, we had reached a point where HBO wasn't going to grow as it had until then. We wanted to be a company that did things differently. But by that time, we weren't anymore the company we were pretending to be. If we want to differentiate ourselves — Chris Albrecht, CEO of HBO."

"The SEC alleges that when the fraud was finally revealed, Satyam's then-Chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju, declared that maintaining Satyam's inflated revenues and profits "was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten." — SEC Charges Satyam with Financial Fraud"

"These record top-line results are not translating to record profitability, nor the Southwest standard of profitability levels (i.e., Southwest was once a profit leader) ... [Southwest’s margins are] roughly 1,000 basis points below the industry leader. — Deutsche Bank, October 2023"

"When I look at this AST spacecraft [BW3], I don't see this as a spacecraft that is going to function well because it's going to start overheating...so you can't have it on for very long and so at that point, what are you proving? — Former Senior Spacecraft Systems Engineer, OneWeb."

"Talking to some of the study people, they really only see the effects of the 4 to 6 months on the drug...that's what I was told just to really see the effects, which is a little unusual compared to the data. — Division Chief for pediatric endocrinology at a major NE academic center"

"Management previously noted receiving initial orders for the Allegro from Asia and Latin America, and continues to believe Asia represents a particularly intriguing opportunity, adding to demand from North America and Europe that existed exiting 2015. — Stifel Research: Aug 3, 2016"

"No, the acquirer cannot achieve all of the synergies in Year 1. That's because the post-transaction integration takes time to execute. The integration could take several years. As a result, it is uncommon for the acquirer to achieve 100% of synergies in the first year. — 10X EBITDA"

"“the big pancake motor, it's outside the realm of most motor manufacturing processes, but adding a gearbox and shrinking down the motor gets us back in the realm so it really opens up the supply base” — Archer Open House Presentation by Alan Tepe, Archer Manager of Inverter Design."

"I always have an example, which I'll refrain from quoting now. It is more or less if you were a bank robber, and go into a bank and say: Hello! I'm a bank robber. - If you then go ahead and rob the bank, then you can say: No problem, I told you that I was a bank robber, after all."

"From Greenlight's point of view, regardless of whether the scope of the audit has changed, whoever approved the Velocita debt and warrant valuations at cost at the end of 2001 and the other criticized investments and valuation methods did not provide appropriate critical scrutiny."

"If Val-gan can grow organically at a high single-digit rate as Valeant management projects, and management can invest the company’s free cash flow in new acquisition targets at historical rates of return, then we believe management can achieve its goal of 15%-20% annual EPS growth"

"We have serious concerns with the Company's management of the formal review of strategic alternatives it announced on November 30, 2015, only a month after a consent solicitation was launched by a dissident seeking to remove and replace four of the incumbent directors on the Board"

"Per the original JV contract, peak revenues were slated to be $170m in the year ending April 30, 2022. The most recent amendment has revised the contract for revenues to peak three years later (April 30, 2025) than the original agreement and at a reduced commitment level of $125m."

"Spruce Point has analyzed many struggling companies over the years, and a consistent theme we find is that challenges are often accompanied by reduced transparency and disclosures. We observe that as recently as FY 2022, Saputo has stopped providing at least three key disclosures."

"MedSec demonstrated two types of potentially catastrophic attacks: "crash" attacks that remotely disable cardiac devices, and in some cases, appear to cause the Cardiac Device to pace at a dangerous rate, and a battery drain attack that remotely runs Cardiac Device batteries down."

"We believe there are buyers interested in acquiring a package of all or a significant portion of Darden's real estate at a highly attractive valuation, and that those buyers would not be interested in purchasing real estate from New Red Lobster at a similarly attractive valuation."

"If management is in fact desperate to secure a deal, it is perhaps even more likely that the Company would entertain a demand by Advent to renegotiate the terms, lest it be forced to find a new acquirer amidst unprecedented economic uncertainty as a recently-failed take-out target"

"PGNY has failed to meet fertility benefit revenue expectations set when it went public. However, the rapid adoption of the pharmacy benefit by existing customers has offset those misses. Importantly, we believe there is little juice to squeeze from pharmacy adoption going forward."

"Assuming Target were to rent its owned real estate and using a 7.0x ’08E EBITDA multiple on the pro forma retail business, the 20-day trading average stock price of $40 implies only $13bn of value for Target’s owned real estate, a significant discount to book and replacement value"

"Spruce Point believes that acquisitions have brought between $10-25M in incremental inorganic sales per quarter to Verint through the last three years. Acquisitions could generate another $125M in inorganic sales through FY20 even if management conducts no further M&A during FY20."

"The Company's opposition to Proposal 6 indicates that its current Board does not truly wish to have all Phillips 66 directors elected annually, and that it would instead prefer to continue enjoying the protections that a staggered Board provides against shareholder accountability."

"NSK, NTN, JTEKT, U.S. Steel, and AK Steel are unsuitable peers for TKR. Although Altra and Kennametal are adequate peers, they are substantially less similar to TKR's bearings business than SKF, but their inclusion in a broader peer group does not alleviate TKR's trading discount."

"We do not believe the Audit Committee is made up of truly independent directors. For instance, according to Chinese filings, the Chairman of QTT's Audit Committee, Li Feng (李峰), appears to be a 12% shareholder of one of QTT's most significant undisclosed related party advertisers."

""Penumbra makes great catheters, and they're effective for intracranial work for doing thrombectomy as a standalone device or as an adjuvant device," — Donald Heck, MD (Novant Health, Winston-Salem, NC). "In this space, people end up using what they're comfortable with," — Jadhav."

"The appointment of director candidates, the nomination or removal of the representative director and executive directors, and decisions on the responsibilities of managing directors shall be based on a motion submitted by the Company president. — Keisei Corporate Governance Report"

"In addition, during the two-year period prior to the date of its opinion, Evercore and its affiliates have advised / provided financial advisory or other services to Veritas for which Evercore received fees, in the aggregate, of approximately $75 million — Company's Schedule 14D-9"

"“AS OTHERS HAVE MERGED INTO MEGACOMPANIES, WE ARE BECOMING MORE STREAMLINED AND FOCUSED. AS OTHERS HAVE BROADENED THEIR PORTFOLIOS, WE ARE FOCUSING ON SELECT AREAS OF MEDICAL NEED.” — JIM CORNELIUS, FORMER BRISTOL-MYERS CHAIRMAN & CEO AND CREATOR OF THE “STRING OF PEARLS” STRATEGY"

"For HIMS and other telemedicine companies, by law, they can't force somebody to fill the prescription at their partner pharmacy. Technically if somebody requested to fill at their local pharmacy, then we would have to honor that. — Spruce Point Interview With Former HIMS Physician"

"I don't want to sound snide, but those are just marketing ploys more than anything. None of those facilities are overly interested in us sending or referring patients...I'm not sure [referrals] were even tracked, and if they were, they were inconsequential. — Former HIMS Executive"

"Each party in breach of the Contract, despite that the other Party demands correction, does not correct the breach yet within 30 days since receiving the exigent. The other Party may give a notice of termination to terminate the Contract. — Article 10 (Termination of the Contract)"

"Given the nature of our business, our research and development activities are very minimal and focused on developing products and improving processes that will drive growth or otherwise add value to our core business operations and create value for our customers. — Bunge 2025 10-K"

"“... Amongst the customers, women represent about half” — President Hasebe, Meeting with Oasis, June 2024. “A disproportionate number of our consumers are women (...) the company heavily markets its products [to women]” — Jon Moeller, CEO, P&G – Cincinnati Enquirer, February 2024."

""displayed hepatoxicity." — Jean-Charles Schwartz (2010 paper). "which had to be abandoned after toxicity tests performed by Bioprojet." — Jean-Charles Schwartz (2010 paper). "drug companies remained essentially uninterested in this research." — Jean-Charles Schwartz (2010 paper)."

"“the development and druggability of tiprolisant (BF2.649) has been questioned, since it had limited oral bioavailability, was a potent inhibitor of CYP2D6 and hERG, and also had a high potential for inducing phospholipidosis….” — 2010 review paper on H3 receptor compound programs"