Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"Our observations of DV losing competitiveness in international markets appears to be mirrored by its loss of accreditation from the UK's ABC. This can't be beneficial for its opportunity to win business against IAS, which has maintained accreditation."

"Help Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) realize its potential for best-in-class operating performance and corporate governance by voting the GOLD card FOR Elliott’s highly qualified board nominees and its proposal to move to annual elections for all board seats."

"Every CFO in MTD's public history has worked at its auditor PwC. PwC has been its auditor since 1999 when KPMG was replaced. In addition, MTD has had the same Treasurer since 1998 and its current Head of Internal Audit worked at PwC for over 13 years."

"Given its claims of technology prowess and abnormally strong financial performance, Spruce Point is struck by the lack of institutional-caliber technology and growth specialist asset management companies that own Perion's shares or active hedge funds."

"Notice that PERI included Yandex with Microsoft Bing in early 2021 after commencement of the new Microsoft deal. The inclusion of Yandex coincides with PERI increasing its total revenue from Microsoft by $100m over the four-year term of the agreement."

"Constant uncertainty about the machine’s ability to function properly; reliability pales in comparison to competitors like 10X Genomics; lack of reliability makes the instrument basically unusable for antibody discovery – it’s main hoped-for use case."

"In the case of Vitek’s December 2023 purchase of Casa Canal, as little as 20% of the total price plus the 4% tax should have been paid, leaving the balance of 80% of the total contract price obligations to be paid by CPI PG until a buyer can be found."

"Spruce Point has identified inconsistent statements made by Rollins about its termite business. On the one hand, they said revenue from termite has tripled. However, a year later they said that they don't break out the termite from ancillary business."

"However, with recent acquisitions poised to contribute $115-125M in cloud revenue by our estimates, we believe that this leaves targeted cloud revenue growth at a three-year CAGR of just 13-27% excluding outstanding sources of inorganic cloud revenue."

"It seems to us that if one were to overstate revenue in a global business, one wouldn't want the margins to seem glaringly out of line with peers. Therefore, we would expect that a smart person (or people) would find a way to inflate expenses as well."

"The same cast of characters that keeps popping up as lead investigators for Nevro’s studies, and as some of its highest volume implanters, also has a knack for topping its OpenPayments leaderboard, which appears to consist mostly of…speaking payments."

"Giscard d'Estaing's assertion that 2016 earnings will contain no more contribution from R/E transactions as in 2015, and his insistence (repeated) that gains will "only" be generated by French food operations, is an avoidance of the original question."

"PLUG’s embrace of direct lease financing to create incremental sales (or to appease large customers) materially transformed Company economics for the worse, and any incremental sales created through this mechanism are demonstrably “low-quality” sales."

"I really mistrusted her, and it was very frustrating...I think other people found her exasperating for sure within the company...in terms of senior leadership, I think they felt their hands were bound...she was the primary, the most prolific enroller."

"Trial investigator #6 stated that diazoxide can be fatal and is contraindicated in patients with elevated pulmonary pressures - common in PWS patients due to obesity and diabetes, both of which greatly increase risk of increased pulmonary hypertension"

"Trial investigator #6 stated that diazoxide can be fatal and is contraindicated in patients with elevated pulmonary pressures - common in PWS patients due to obesity and diabetes, both of which greatly increase risk of increased pulmonary hypertension"

"At the same address as Campus Auto Collusion, where GFL sends trucks for refurbishment, there is another business registered called LCG New Generation. Mr. Di Orio, an owner of Campus, and Mr. Kris Della Pia are listed as the Directors of the Company."

"AS OF THE PUBLICATION DATE OF THIS REPORT, GRIZZLY RESEARCH (POSSIBLY ALONG WITH OR THROUGH OUR MEMBERS, PARTNERS, AFFILIATES, EMPLOYEES, AND/OR CONSULTANTS) ALONG WITH OUR CLIENTS AND/OR INVESTORS HAS A DIRECT OR INDIRECT SHORT POSITION IN THE STOCK."

"The real fly in the ointment for IONQ and its investors is that this table shows that once again, the Pentagon did not request funds for this Qubitekk project, the funding for it was initiated by some member of Congress at the behest of some lobbyist."

"The sell-side analyst community appears equally divided on ENFN's share price outlook. However, we believe the biggest bulls on the name are wrong in their assessments and have failed to conduct a rigorous forensic analysis of the Company's reporting."

"In addition to promoting the “new” and supposedly improved light source in the A300, Lasertec purports that the tool is High NA compatible, which refers to next generation EUV lithography with high numerical aperture (“NA”) to shrink the feature size."

"Given the significant competition in this market from much larger players, including Broadcom, Dialog Semiconductor, Infineon and Texas Instruments, we seriously question whether DSP's current projection to reach 25% market share by 2014 is realistic."

"“...we didn’t need the primary capital, we obviously did the convertible note earlier in the year really to fund some of our very, disciplined M&A efforts, and we are generating pretty healthy levels of free cash flow...” — CEO Aaron Levie, April 2021"

"“No, it’s being planned out now. We haven’t yet had the first oversight committee meeting. That’ll be happening in the spring...I think, so we’re in this buildup phase. So, no, it’s not yet a thing where people can show up and do work” — UMD Professor"

""You can't judge us on a one-year basis. You have to do it over the long term." — John Hess, January 2010; "Since July 24, 2012, the last day of trading before we announced our updated strategy, Hess shares have increased..." — John Hess, January 2013"

""Most of the other vendors that we do business, Ariat is a great example. I mean Ariat has helped us build their business. They're an extremely strong partner. They will continue to get growth with us going forward." — CEO Conroy, Q1'23: July 27, 2022"

"..there will be times when CLR may outspend its internally generated cash flow. However, so long as it is earning the returns on investment in the incremental barrel produced by these borrowings... this should be of minor concern. — Moody's March 2012"

"outsourced "technicians" cannot be verified that they are giving correct information. most doctors mistrust outsourced information especially from these 2 countries. it is only cheap labor. information must be from US source where there are standards."

"“Housing is of course a social and an economic issue. However, if dealt with inappropriately, it will also become a political issue.” — Wang Guangya, Director of Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China"

""[T]here's a qualification level that is required to sit on the Disney board, and the board will make, not me, the board makes decisions about who's qualified and who isn't qualified to be on the board." — Robert A. Iger, CEO & Director, November 2023"

"And while BlackRock and Vanguard still make up the bulk of all ETF assets, an unprecedented 45% of the new money flowing into the industry this year has gone to issuers outside of the big two, Bloomberg Intelligence data show. — Bloomberg Intelligence"

""the preponderance of revenue on the loan side comes from [fintechs]...I mean, if you look at Upstart, I think they've reported as much as 50-plus percent of their origination volume comes from Credit Karma." — Former Director at Intuit, Tegus, 8/2/22"

"「顧客は95%以上の信頼性を期待しています。レーザーテック製の装置は信頼性が、つまり稼働率が95%になりません。検査装置にとってはマスク工場はドル箱です。......ファブの生産プロセスの中で、途中で検査することはマスク工場の検査と比較して重要度が低く、市場価値もより低いです。したがって、ウェハーのファブに設置するために、大金を使って極端紫外線アクティニック検査装置を買ってくることは私には想像しにくいです。優先順位が違うからです」 — KLAで極端紫外線マスク検査を担当した、元エンジニアリング幹部"

"be available to shareholders should they have any concerns that the normal channel of approaching the Chair, Group CEO, or Chief Financial Officer has failed to resolve or where such contact would not be appropriate — Aviva Corporate Governance Policy"

"With an increased focus on vendor risk management, the FFIEC and other regulatory agencies provide guidelines for overseeing technology service providers, increasing the contractual requirements with our clients and the cost of providing our services."

"As of December 31, 2020, Lianjia had approximately 139,000 agents, including agents employed by us and from labor dispatching or outsourcing agencies, and approximately 7,800 offline brokerage stores across 29 cities in China. — BEKE 2020, 20-F, p .60"

"It’s expensive, it’s early stage, and there are limited sources of supply. I would argue that companies that are trying to build these components on their own are going to run into significant engineering challenges. — Chris Quilty of Quilty Analytics"

"“So all of these careful and rather elegant in vitro/ex vivo and animal model studies for hERG are quite meaningless without key peak and AUC information across patients. I don't know how they got away with this honestly.” — Pharmacokinetic consultant"

"The title of the graph states that it shows “QTc vs. steady state Cmax” – however, the data is based upon plasma levels after a SINGLE DOSE, NOT STEADY-STATE levels which are 2.3 times higher, and which means the graph is incorrect. — Scorpion Capital"

""Legal persons, with the exception of the State, are criminally liable, according to the distinctions of Articles 121-4 to 121-7, for offenses committed, on their behalf, by their organs or representatives." — Article 121-2 of the French Criminal Code"

"“KLA has all the ability to make it happen...that’s for sure...KLA is definitely it.” — KLA executive. “KLA may have an interesting strategy...they will be ahead of Lasertec because they already have a better source.” — Leading EUV lithography expert."

"We are valuing legacy HSIC at a one turn discount to its current EV/ EBITDA multiple of ~13.0X. We think a slight discount to its current valuation is warranted since the legacy HSIC will no longer be exposed to the higher growth animal health sector"

"Transparent's website address is registered to Vantage Payments and is linked to a residential address at the Colony Camelback Condominium. When calling the 800 phone number on the website, an answering service picks up during regular business hours."

"Spruce Point believes Healthcare Trust of America, Inc. (HTA or the Company) and its Audit Committee should open an investigation into its reporting of Same-Property Cash NOI, which exhibits virtually no volatility - a statistically unlikely outcome."

"Spruce Point believes Avery's business has been an abject failure over the past 20 years. It has spent $1.8bn on R&D, $2.8bn for acquisitions, and incurred $1.0bn of restructuring costs. All the while, annual Free Cash Flow hasn't consistently grown."

"At the same address as Campus Auto Collusion, where GFL sends trucks for refurbishment, there is another business registered called LCG New Generation. Mr. Di Orio, an owner of Campus, and Mr. Kris Della Pia are listed as the Directors of the Company"

"We believe Essential is signaling that it will miss its targets for the first time since 2015, is richly valued with a poor risk / reward, and should trade at a discount – not a premium – to peers given the numerous issues we’ve identified including:"

"We find that Generac marked-up inventories by 55% from £4.8m ($6.8m) to $9.97m. Generac hasn't disclosed any fair value revisions to inventory, or amortization of an inventory step-up. Inflating inventory values is a hallmark of margin overstatement."

"While Carvana will presumably try to conduct similar refinancings on future loans originated, management now has a far smaller reserve from which to create profits from the monetization of receivables, and with which to make up any shortfalls in GPU."

"We believe Aquablation is ill-suited for prostate cancer applications, that the market for prostate cancer treatments is crowded with well-performing solutions, and that the Company is being given more credit for its efforts to date than is deserved."

"Mr. Feld's experience as an active stockholder, board member, and expert in capital markets and corporate governance practices, as well as his knowledge of intellectual property licensing, will enable him to provide invaluable oversight to the Board."

"Allied recorded its $20 million debt investment in Startec Global Communications at cost throughout 2001 and even increased its investment in the company in June 2001 by an additional $15 million despite significant evidence that Startec was failing."

"We also note that PetIQ is amortizing its “customer relationships” over an egregiously-long twenty-year period. This stands in contrast to peers which amortize acquisition-derived customer relationships over far shorter periods – typically ten years."

"Quantumscape’s own slide points out the problem, indicating that current solid-state separators “only work under severely compromised conditions” – specifically stating they only work under elevated temperatures, which drives “cost” and “complexity.”"

"Ex-employees indicate that even today, making prototype cells is a fickle, haphazard “arts and crafts” exercise that’s “very sensitive” to the person doing it; lab samples are so brittle they break at “astronomically high” rates with manual handling."

"In this instance, given the long record of falling short and the deep loss of confidence in Southwest’s leadership among shareholders and other constituents, it is simply untenable for the same Board and management team to continue to lead Southwest."

"In this instance, given the long record of falling short and the deep loss of confidence in Southwest’s leadership among shareholders and other constituents, it is simply untenable for the same Board and management team to continue to lead Southwest."

"The Arconic stock price increase caused by the shareholder call for managerial change occurred on the back of a material increase in trading volume, further highlighting that the market believes Arconic is worth more without Dr. Kleinfeld at the helm"

"Over the course of his career, Mr. Reza has gained valuable finance and transactional experience and has had the opportunity to manage and lead an international jewelry company, developing expertise in cultivating relationships with luxury customers."

"In this instance, given the long record of falling short and the deep loss of confidence in Southwest’s leadership among shareholders and other constituents, it is simply untenable for the same Board and management team to continue to lead Southwest."