Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"Engine questions how Ms. Moorehead (current Chair) and Mr. Derksen (former Chair) could approve such a statement when they know full well that since calling the Special Meeting, Engine and the Company have been seemingly close to reaching a resolution on more than one occasion."

"APi is a credible national competitor to Cintas that offers a full suite of safety solutions including engineering, design, installation, inspection, repair and monitoring. We believe Cintas offers a narrower range of services, and does not do the more lucrative repair business"

"Cintas has reported making “minor changes” to its Audit Committee Charter in early 2019, yet has not updated the document on its website. However, all other committee charter documents have been updated. Shareholders should not be kept in the dark as to what these changes were."

"Eurofins, whose BUs are often audited by firms unaffiliated with its consolidated financial auditor Deloitte, routinely has its subsidiaries report Cash & Equivalents balances in inconsistent manners, and often in ways that likely disguise that there is very little actual cash."

"Doctors more amenable to using stimulators for PDN – including Nevro loyalists - were vocal in stating that Abbott's DRG is the best waveform for PDN versus high frequency: “without question”; “it’s not even a question”; “100 times better than any other neuromodulation system.”"

"The item "Advances" includes advances received from customers relating to supplies of goods and services not yet carried out; this item includes advances with or without the function of a deposit, for transactions involving the sale of tangible, intangible and financial assets."

"Mr. Warner's 30+ years of experience building and leading organizations in digital media and marketing and his deep expertise in general management, business development, strategy and planning, will enable him, in Starboard's view, to provide effective oversight of the Company."

"Comically, even the clinical trials show Wakix is inferior to modafinil, which leaves only one conceivable argument: that it is easier to prescribe because it’s not a controlled substance, the flimsy thread by which its FDA approval, commercial pitch, and stock narrative hangs."

"When we visited the facility on weekdays during the months of June, July and August 2025, we barely observed any activity besides a couple of people walking outside the facility and a few cars parked, giving the impression of a facility standing idle, awaiting a genuine purpose"

"We are short UFP Technologies (UFPT), which specializes in producing single-use drapes, because our research indicates that their largest customer, Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), —who controls 57% of surgical robot systems—is gutting UFPT by insourcing and buying from a competitor."

"Given that there are only two or three EUV source suppliers to choose from, it is obvious that Lasertec would have evaluated Isteq over five years ago prior to rejecting it for Ushio – and are now desperately trying to cover up the Ushio failure and trying Isteq as a Hail Mary."

"What truth is there in the accusation by Muddy Waters that there are various transactions with related parties? It cannot be denied that the Ströer Group, just like many other listed companies, also transacts business with related parties. — Schmalzl (quoting Mr. ten Doornkaat)"

"NQ Yu Lin: For example, we have over 3 million searches on our music searching service. The largest music search engine in the world, Shazam, has 10 million searches per day. We predict that our service will exceed Shazam and become the largest music search engine in the world."

"“The closing of bookings in Q3 will have a direct impact on recognized revenue and accordingly, we anticipate our top line for Q4 to end up between $1 million and $1.2 million for the full year revenue of $1.5 million to $1.7 million for 2021.” — CFO, IonQ Q3 2021 earnings call"

"I am opening a 3-D printing center for aligner cases to provide retail aligner lab revenue as another stream of income. I am opening an aligner institute to educate other dentists, recruit dentists to my group, and add new business to the 3-D printing center. — Seth Wasson, DMD"

"Darden also contends that it asked the buyer, Golden Gate Capital, for a shareholder vote on the sale, but that it refused. That position is laughable, of course, because Golden Gate would obviously decline such a vote unless Darden demanded it. — New York Times on May 20, 2014"

"“Factory of the future, we’re going through qualification right now. And we anticipate over the rest of this year we will start to do the initial debugging and testing and running initial runs. So we don’t start shipping revenue until early next year.” — James M. Thorburn (CFO)"

"The recently-enacted Business Assistance Act of 2009, which extended the carry-back period for net operating losses from two to five years, is expected to provide a significant cash refund and tax benefit to us in fiscal 2010. — Matt Appel, CFO of Zales Corp., November 24, 2009"

"Develop long range commodity strategies, manage existing supplier relationships and develop new suppliers as needed. Negotiate supply contracts with local and international suppliers. — LinkedIn Profile of Head of US Supply Chain Excellence at Mettler-Toledo International, Inc."

"We completed the acquisition of OrthoSensor, Inc. (OrthoSensor). OrthoSensor is a leader in the digital evolution of musculoskeletal care and sensor technology for total joint replacement. OrthoSensor is part of our Joint Replacement business within Orthopaedics — Stryker Corp."

""Medical Manager has done a great job in creating an electronic infrastructure that we can use to deploy our e-commerce network in doctors' offices," said David Schlanger, senior vice president at Synetic. "It's a combination that makes great sense." — Tampa Bay Times, May 1999"

"During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, Alclear Holdings declared and paid approximately $140.9 million in cash distributions to its members (including tax distributions) to its members (including our Co-Founding Members, and our executive officers). — CLEAR SEC filings"

"assess that the company is indeed delaying payments to suppliers, that the problem is significant enough to bear meaning for the company's overall financial health, and that it is specifically tied to Casino's poor performance in Q3 2015 and since. — Muddy Waters' investigators"

"We aren't going to give you a specific margin target, but it should result in between 100 to 150 bps of margin improvement annually on the pathway to narrow the margin gap with peers and deliver industry competitive margins. — CEO Alan Shaw, Q4 2023 Earnings Call, Jan. 26, 2024"

""We are present in 14 countries. France, South Africa and French-speaking Switzerland currently represent 90% of our activity. But, among our some 2,500 customers, some are present in Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States, in particular." — Serge Sozonoff, iKentoo CEO"

"“it is so hidden – they’re going to enormous lengths...they’re blinding their sales consultants to patients...they’re investing no energy in the patient staying on the drug...none...that’s not a long term play.” — Ex-Harmony territory manager for a large region in the northeast"

"“it is so hidden – they’re going to enormous lengths...they’re blinding their sales consultants to patients...they’re investing no energy in the patient staying on the drug...none...that’s not a long term play.” — Ex-Harmony territory manager for a large region in the northeast"

""they get a dark frame or they get a false defect...it’s light source fluctuation...the brightness is just going to fluctuate just as a function of the physics of the plasma." — Ushio field engineer who maintains light sources on Lasertec ACTIS A150 machines at Intel Oregon fab"

"“Sorry, some of the stuff I really can't share. I have some connections which are very close with Lasertec and that's what I hear from some close connections at Lasertec. But I really can't go into more than that.” — Ex-KLA director of engineering focused on EUV mask inspection"

""It's happening according to all the indications I have, it's happening. Of course, it's happening. It's not bullshit. They are investing tremendously. They committed to Wall Street. It's happening." — Former KLA executive in a leadership role in their EUV mask inspection group"

"We are unimpressed with Ströer’s response to our initial report. There seems to be a cottage industry that has grown up around responding to criticism from short activists. Accordingly, Ströer leaves major issues unaddressed, which we presume is because it has no good answers."

"It appears that Smart2Pay’s approximately 50 employees were to join Nuvei. This further calls into question how could its margins increase so dramatically in the absence of significant cost reductions. LinkedIn employment trends also show no indication of employment attrition."

"In the value chain, Genius in the middleman between leagues and sportsbook. Genius purchases exclusive rights from leagues and often provides software at no cost. Genius’ sportsbook customers use the data feed provided by Genius for their end market betting and media products."

"AMT is taking a double benefit. First, it wishes to increase its tenancy ratio, which leads to organic growth. However, a number of the towers, particularly in the emerging markets, were only built to handle one tenant and need redevelopment CapEx to handle additional tenants."

"In contrast to the QS CEO’s claims that VW has “seen the data” and “they’ve seen it works,” both VW employees indicated that VW has seen little: “the main issues our engineers and experts are raising are trust in the data, a lack of transparency”; “there are so many questions”"

"As we read IonQ’s presentations, we noticed that the claims are stunning and in large font, yet the slides look like the SPAC version of an illustrated children’s book – stuffed with make-believe hockey sticks on seemingly every other page and futuristic conceptual renderings."

"To further emphasize its size advantage versus competitors, IonQ adds other pictures for the avoidance of doubt. Its presentation indicates that its ion trap and vacuum chamber package is only 2 inches wide, versus IBM and Google’s hardware at 6 feet and 20 feet, respectively."

"IonQ heavily promotes their gold-colored “QPU chip” – the so-called “quantum processing unit” – as their secret sauce and the heart of their intellectual property, portraying it as a special version of CPU’s in regular computers: “Empowered by Unique Technological Advantages.”"

"However, despite having arguably the best positioned portfolio in the consumer packaged goods industry, Nestlé shares have significantly underperformed most of their US and European consumer staples peers on a three year, five year, and ten year total shareholder return basis."

"This stark disconnect between the Company's branding and its financial reality raises significant questions about the substance of its AI narrative and whether the rebrand reflects true technological leadership or simply an effort to capitalize on prevailing market enthusiasm."

"Unbeknownst to Plaintiff and Class members, their actions, interactions, data transmissions and communications while accessing and navigating the Naviance platform were surreptitiously intercepted, monitored, captured and recorded by Defendant Heap and the Heap Doe Defendants."

"MDA has consistently produced poor free cash flow. From 2012-2017 average free cash flow was C$33m (US$30m). Leading up to the DigitalGlobe deal, it even reported bank overdrafts of cash. YTD 2018 overdrafts have continued, and debt is rising through credit facility borrowing."

"We believe that if our nominees are elected they can help oversee the execution of this plan and the Company can realize $300 million in profit upside over consensus EBITDA estimates, leading to a clear path to achieving $4.00 or more in earnings per share in the coming years."

"Warning: Given concerns we will document about Oatly's: 1) Lack of adequate financial disclosures, 2) Three auditors in six years, and 3) Evidence of key financial and operational metrics not adding up, we find it curious that the Company appointed Frances Rathke to the Board."

"Nelson Peltz, and Jay Rasulo – who ran Disney’s Parks business for nearly a decade – will work with the Board to execute on a clear vision for Parks targeting at least high-single digit operating income growth to ensure adequate returns on the $60 billion of capital investment"

"Legg Mason, Inc. (NYSE: LM) announced today that it has increased the size of its Board of Directors from 10 to 12 members and has appointed Nelson Peltz and Ed Garden of Trian Fund Management, L.P. ("Trian Partners") to the Company's Board of Directors, effective immediately."

"The evidence suggests that Axon has aggressively recognized revenues. These aggressive accounting choices were known to be blessed by Arthur Andersen, the now defunct auditor, that famously signed-off on Enron’s financial statements and was charged with obstruction of justice."

"There is evidence that CHD is stretching the truth about the performance of FLAWLESS. When asked directly about any surprises, the CFO said "only good surprises". However, the evidence contradicts this with the integration taking longer than expected by a revision in the 10-Q."

"However, we believe that unadjusted EBITDA and unadjusted earnings are far more accurate measures of Hill-Rom's profitability, as these restructuring and acquisition-related charges are effectively recurring and/or capitalized costs for an M&A-driven business such as Hill-Rom."

"According to the SAIC records, Branch No. 4 and 88 are registered on the same street, only two stores away. We visited these two branches' registered addresses. Yet we only found one Lianjia store (Branch 88). The location where Branch No. 4 should be is actually a restaurant."

"Despite their late start, COVID, growing trade wars, and the massive disadvantage of competing against some of the world's most dominant companies, the emerging Chinese WFE players have experienced explosive growth, making it no longer reasonable to question their credibility."

"As stated, we have concerns about Wilson’s level of engagement with Heska. Therefore, we were surprised to find that he lives 2.5 - 3 hours from Heska’s headquarters. While the pandemic has obviously resulted in more remote work, this situation persisted for years prior to it."

"Nelson Peltz, and Jay Rasulo – who ran Disney’s Parks business for nearly a decade – will work with the Board to execute on a clear vision for Parks targeting at least high-single digit operating income growth to ensure adequate returns on the $60 billion of capital investment"

"Perverse incentives are central to understanding TransMedics business model. It exists solely as a creature of a preposterous Medicare reimbursement loophole unique to transplants – which regulators are racing to kill off, unbeknownst to bulls, taking TransMedics down with it."

"However, the Company’s reactive changes to date, while a step in the right direction, have for the most part failed to address the serious operational issues facing the Company, namely the current Board’s unwavering pursuit of a high-cost, value-destroying status-quo strategy."

"Dollarama has no promotional expense. Meanwhile, promotional expenses average 1-2% of revenue among U.S. peers. As established competitors continue to expand, and as new competitors enter the market (Amazon included), Dollarama’s no-cost marketing strategy may prove untenable."

"The second red flag is that both rodent studies used a “supramaximal dose” of pitolisant in order to come up with a relatively modest increase in T-meha vs. the control animals – which of course also implies a supernormal human dose far higher than the max 35.6mg on the label."

"The statistically significant finding for cataplexy in HARMONY 1 was dependent on how missing values were handled (i.e., missing or zero values were assigned a value of 0.5; if they were excluded from the analysis, the treatment effect was no longer statistically significant)."

"Each has a similar structure: Ginkgo and its investors create and fund the entity, which then simply returns and round-trips back cash or “non-cash consideration” to Ginkgo under the guise of R&D “prepayments” or services, which it books as Foundry revenue or deferred revenue."

"We Believe the Loss of Government Funding for Pentagon Contracts That Had Comprised Up To 86% of Recognized Revenues, and Additional Bookings of $54.6 Million Led to Potentially Illegal Insider Sales, Massive Dilution, and a Desperate Rollup of Non-Quantum Computing Businesses"