Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"While adding a new independent director with retail experience is a step in the right direction, we believe Mr. Massey’s nomination was reactionary to our involvement and we question whether the Board would have taken such action were it not for our pending proxy contest."

"The dominance of PetIQ's distributed Rx business relies on the current structure of veterinary pharmaceutical distribution. Passage of the FTPOA might increase sales in the short term, but would increase competition and pressure profitability over the medium-to-long term."

"Not only has Olive Garden management apparently failed to create new solutions suitable for the current environment, we believe it also greatly undermined the foundation of the business by losing sight of the brand image and value proposition that resonated with customers"

"Both VW employees were dismissive of Quantumscape’s data as not real world: “easy to do it in the laboratory” with “a small scale” and “low-capacity cell”; “we have only seen simulations under perfect test conditions”; suggest the “battery business” is full of such claims"

"One former employee and quantum computing expert after another ridiculed or mocked IonQ’s notion of photonic interconnects, indicating that IonQ hasn’t even proven that the concept works in principle much less via an engineering solution – a “choke point” and “weak link.”"

"Not only has Olive Garden management apparently failed to create new solutions suitable for the current environment, we believe it also greatly undermined the foundation of the business by losing sight of the brand image and value proposition that resonated with customers"

"Our goal is to represent the best interests of all stockholders, and we believe that our Nominees have the experience and track record to drive the much needed oversight and accountability at Box that will put the Company on a path to significant long-term value creation."

"With their Class B shares scheduled to vest in full on the final day of their current contracts, the hospitals due to renew or opt out on Oct 1, 2019 have little incentive to continue to accept less than half the shareback dollars that they could receive from another GPO."

"AMR purchased 84% of coal sold in its Trading and Logistics Segment from Alpha in 2017. The intercompany eliminations between Contura and Alpha show revenues equaling costs. Despite this, Contura/AMR reported $89.3 million of EBITDA from the Trading and Logistics segment."

"We believe core earnings is a more accurate metric to measure the financial performance of a specialty finance business. Sunnova's core earnings have continued to decline, and we believe it is unlikely NOVA will ever be able to maintain a sustained level of profitability."

"We believe the DNA data storage initiative is vaporous, simply a scam to keep promoting the stock with vague, incoherent aspirational statements – and mostly to provide another cover for what we believe to be its rampant misclassification of COGS as R&D expenses or capex."

"There is massive leverage at EBITDA level. A sole 1% reduction (as % of sales) at Distribution expenses level and 0.5% reduction (as % of sales) at Administrative expenses level would account for USD4.9m of extra EBITDA which accounts for a 61% increase of current EBITDA."

"Do you want Norfolk Southern to have leadership with the experience and judgment to properly implement Precision Scheduled Railroading ("PSR"), so the Company can finally achieve the service, safety and long-term value realized by every other publicly traded Class I rail?"

"Spruce Point believes that the economics of hydrogen refueling stations are so poor, 12.5 years to repay investment amount without overhead (based on Foshan refueling station economics), that they will never be built barring significant sustained subsidies from government"

"Spruce Point observes that Saputo stopped promoting its @FrigoCheeseHead Twitter account on its website, and now has a @CheeseHeads_USA account. We find that the old Twitter handle reveals multiple product quality issues around uniform cheese sizes and hair contamination."

"The itemized list of Business Support Materials below comes from the blog of a former (non- Sales Leader) Herbalife distributor showing nearly $2,000 of expenses in only three months, excluding Herbalife product purchases. The company seldom acknowledges these costs exist"

"Kornit trades at a meaningful premium to direct digital printing peers it competes with, as well as its second largest print customer which is struggling, on the belief that its 20%+ revenue growth rate is sustainable and its margins are better than peers and will expand."

"It seems clear to us based on the table below, which highlights the significant TSR relative difference between Parkland and its peers pre and post Mr. McMillan's departure, that his departure represented a material and adverse development to Parkland's senior management."

"New Pacific President Gordon Neal , in Jan. 2019, said he: “commend[s] the Minister of Mines and Metallurgy and the President of COMIBOL for committed focus to complete this transaction. It is a benchmark achievement that shows that Bolivia is open to foreign investment.”"

"Instrument overwhelms the user with unusable and unanalyzable amounts of data; can't figure out how to optimize an assay; no time savings (one of the machine's most important selling points) for cell therapy; just an “exploratory” tool that provides some incremental data."

"Instrument is perceived harshly in the field; “anybody” familiar with single-cell analysis is “very skeptical and rightfully so” particularly for critical applications like FDA submissions; scientists are skeptical that cell assays can “behave normally” in the instrument."

"Several traditional on-premise enterprise software vendors subject to similar market and competitive forces that BMC faces today delivered significant premiums to stockholders by objectively evaluating alternatives and concluding a sale was in stockholder's best interest."

"We believe the Pros of doing this Transaction far outweigh the Cons of having a temporarily lower rating. Post-Transaction, the Company will have improved access to capital and lower capital needs. As such, credit ratings will be less material to Target Corp going forward"

"Amcor's CEO assured investors it received "good advice" and it didn't expect any issues from a regulatory perspective from the transaction. Unfortunately, both the European Commission and The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) disagreed, and required Amcor to divest assets."

"Our conclusion from this analysis is that Juniper's assets are valuable and strategic and that the business possesses several fundamental upside drivers over the medium-term but that its future will be increasingly difficult if Juniper continues with its existing strategy"

"Washington state terminated coverage after a lengthy 2018 evidence review by 11 clinicians, slamming stimulators as unsafe with sky-high complication rates of 42-60%, and concluding that they fail to provide pain relief or reduce the need for pain medication like opioids."

"Relatively stable gaming OP in FY19 bodes well for FY20 and beyond, and supports the notion that the gaming segment is becoming less and less cyclical as the business continues to transition toward recurring revenue and live services, and away from cyclical hardware sales"

"He indicated little interest in prescribing the drug unless a patient pushes for it, and that despite the one Vykat start form submitted, physicians may "try it once or twice" and quickly move on or prescribe generic diazoxide suspension off-label versus chasing insurers."

"LSPD has a focus on SMBs but its DSOs at 15 are significantly lower than comparable sized peers at 70+ and actually improved during peak COVID-19 whereas peer DSOs worsened. How is this possible? On the next slide, we show that allowance for bad debts was even increasing."

"Spruce Point believes there is significant downside to Lightspeed’s share price as the Company appears overvalued on both revenue and gross profit metrics, and should trade at a material discount to peers given the strong evidence we’ve presented of its inferior business."

"While the table above shows the absence of IONQ’s earmarks, the Air Force’s formal, unclassified budget request for FY 2026 shows the Pentagon actively zeroing them all out in 2025, including no 2025 funding for the two contracts with the combined $54.4 million blackhole."

"We have issues with TeliaSonera’s continuation of two previous accounting gimmicks that in 2013 and 2014 (the two years for which this board is responsible for the financials) respectively inflated reported EPS by SEK0.19 per share and SEK0.12 per share, or 5.9% and 3.8%."

"“Every company wants to make it like ‘we have the thing that treats the full spectrum’, and that does not exist. So if you ever have someone telling you that they have something that treats all prostate sizes, that is not correct...” — Private Practice Urologist, Dec 2024"

"Why didn't Ströer report the results of the digital business in Turkey in light of the instances of fraud already established? What responsibility do the board of management and the management bear for the failure to correct the problem? — Shareholder question at 2016 AGM"

"SoFi Technologies, Inc., Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript (Nov. 2024): CFO Lapointe stated "we sold $312 million of senior secured loans at a par execution." The September 30, 2024 UCC identifying SoFi as "Mezzanine Lender" had been filed six weeks earlier. — CFO Lapointe"

"It’s just been a very, very trying week, Fagal told MBJ on March 27. The way a practice runs, especially an orthodontist practice like mine ... you may go from seeing 70-90 patients a day, and then you’re able to see three. And, it’s a huge change. — Fagal (quoted in MBJ)"

""The way the facility was built, it was leased, but the plant has been Oatly. That being said, I know they purchased it and totally overpaid for it, upward of $10m. I don't know why they would pay that much, but my jaw dropped when I heard it." — Former Oatly U.S. Manager"

"See, normally we try to send everything to Asia by boat. But we had quality issues at our production site in Landskrona that resulted in production delays. So, to make up the time, 7% of the 2019 volume to Asia had to be transported by flight. — 2019 Sustainability Report"

"“I was buying all of my oligo pools from Agilent...So, for the last two years, we’ve been doing everything by Twist because of the discount and in the two years, it stayed constant.” — Current Twist customer, professor with a protein therapeutics lab at a major university"

"I don’t think having another of the same product with other issues in terms of safety versus JAKAFI is really changing fundamentally the big picture, because the big picture is JAKAFI has probably the best profile in terms of safety, efficacy for the disease. — Incyte CEO"

"Mr. Parsons was effectively pushed aside. In the spring of 2001, he exercised 700,000 TWX options at $11.87 per share and sold 700,000 shares of TWX stock at a weighted average price of $50.38 per share. — Nina Munk, Fools Rush In 192 (HarperCollins Publishers Inc. 2004)."

"“Holland wrote that the reports used resource estimation methods that were inconsistent with best practices, and contained ‘errors that could individually or collectively result in material overestimation of mineral resources.’” — Robert Holland, BCSC Chief Mining Advisor"

"In China where it’s not reimbursed and then even if it’s a small percentage that can afford it, you still have a really big number. So that’s why we see this as a big opportunity on the retail side — Inogen Management (via Piper Jaffray Health Care Conference 11/29/2018)."

"A rare example of Stryker miscommunicating, but it believes wasn't trying to talk down 2022 numbers or call out worsening macro conditions hitting numbers — J.P. Morgan, "Updating the Model For Recent Management Commentary; Remain Optimistic On NT Trends" – March 16, 2022"

"is not a well-controlled process...it was painful...if you choose a bad technology you just can't get there — Intel senior executive. I have met the VP of Intel's mask operations, a few times. yes, of course — Longtime semiconductor equipment friendly with Lasertec's CEO."

"If we get a huge order from the government or if we win tranche 2, which is for tens of thousands of drones and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of revenue, we want to have the capital in the bank instead of doing things like buybacks. — July 27th, 2022 Earnings Call"

""HbA1c followed a similar pattern, being elevated at 26 Weeks (Change from Baseline mean±SD 0.19±0.50%) and returned nearly to baseline by 65 Weeks (Baseline mean±SD 5.547%±0.4069%; 65 weeks 5.572%±0.5103%)." — Phase 3 open-label study paper - Miller et al (2024), excerpt"

"“They were just surprised to see that it was so extreme, especially given the fact that it seemed to happen so quickly after they came off the drug. They didn't expect that. They expected it to be a slower withdrawal.” — Formerly in a senior medical affairs role at Soleno"

"“of course...that’s probably what it will come to...I think that’s what it’s going to come to”; “kids like drinking liquids”; “if there’s an equation, we’ll find it”; “if it’s on MDCalc, I think we’ll feel good about it” — Endocrinologist at Massachusetts General Hospital"

"“intentionally misleading” and “sneaky,” — Two consultants (a pharmacology specialist and a leading figure in drug-induced cardiotoxicity). “The postmarketing data should also be monitored for sudden deaths and cardiovascular and respiratory adverse reactions.” — The FDA."

"The market expects FIGS to continue top-line growth in the mid 20% range while accelerating EBITDA margins. As a result, the market ascribes FIGS a rich revenue multiple of approximately 4x. We have shown why we believe there is substantial room for multiple compression."

"Despite a massive revenue decline of $4.8 billion from 2007 to 2012, total G&A expense has actually increased, causing G&A expense as a percentage of revenue to increase from 4.2% to 6.3% and Adjusted EBITDA margins to decline from 5.3% to 3.1% over the same time period."

"Limiting director tenure allows new directors to the board to bring fresh perspectives. An excessive tenure is considered to potentially compromise a director's independence...For the US, Canada, Hong Kong, and, Singapore, lengthy tenure is defined as nine or more years."

"For the first time in Q2 2019, MPWR disclosed “Company A (direct)” as a material customer and accounting for 16% of accounts receivables outstanding. We believe this supports our opinion that MPWR’s distributor channels are full, and it is now going direct to a customer."

"Since its release by ADP in 2013, customer adoption of Vantage HCM has not kept pace with many of its HCM suite competitors; the relatively small number of live customers has resulted in...difficulty in securing sufficient relevant references for their selection process."

"Keisei's Board is swollen by an excessive number of inside directors resulting in misalignment with peers and falling short of acceptable governance standards – at least 4 of Keisei's current inside directors offer little to the Board and should not stand for re-election"

"Per our estimates, and excluding external financings, it is increasingly likely Anthony Noto would lose substantially all of his $10+ million PSU performance bonus if not for the intellectually dishonest and misleading financial reporting we have outlined in this report."

"Adopting a capital allocation framework is in line with Keisei's long-term business plan by maintaining its focus on both community-oriented investments and organic and/or inorganic growth projects for its core operating businesses to maximise value for all stakeholders."

"We believe it is more than a stretch for Samsara to position vehicle telematics and safety cameras as the “operations cloud” when their solution does not address the numerous other core operational processes such as production, supply chain, inventory, or route planning."

"Rather than holding management accountable for right-sizing the cost structure of GCP’s SCC business and actually improving operations, the Board has settled on accepting market exits to stem the significant losses generated by GCP’s fundamental operating inefficiencies."