Callouts & quotes from 2,101+ activist slides

""To this day, I don't believe in sequels. I can't follow popular cycles. I have to move on to new things—there are many new worlds to conquer." — Walt Disney, 1966 Letter to Shareholders; "I'd say we're leaning a little bit more into sequels and franchises... doing that, leaning on franchises that are familiar is actually a smart thing." — Robert A. Iger, CEO & Director, February 2024"

"OIG recently announced that they’re going to investigate every single OPO, and they’re going to investigate every single transplant program, and it’s going to happen by the end of 2025. ... I’d say I owe you 5 grand times however many kidneys I transplanted because I’ve been overcharging the whole time. — CEO of a major OPO (Organ Procurement Organization), longtime industry executive"

""thing to notice: patients are already in the operating room so AF treatment makes sense. So potential market on an annual basis is 85,000 U.S. patients per year; only 30% of the patients today are currently being treated. So there is significant opportunity for further penetration and growth." — David Drachman, AtriCure's Then-CEO, JMP Securities Research Conference – May 11th, 2010"

""The report issued by Muddy Waters contains many inaccuracies, omissions, fabrications, and unsubstantiated claims..." — Orient Paper. "We are committed to a high level of corporate governance and stand by the integrity of our company..." — Allen Chan, Chairman and CEO of Sino-Forest. "We categorically reject their allegations as inaccurate, unreliable and misleading." — Noble Group."

"“Elliott’s consultant and candidate for CEO – Larry Lawson, a former Spirit AeroSystems CEO – is legally restricted from taking the job and is on Elliott’s payroll. Elliott has agreed to pay him approximately $28 million over next two years, raising the question of whether he would truly serve the interests of ALL Arconic shareholders.” — Arconic’s Letter to Employees, April 7, 2017"

"“There really is nobody. And when I say nobody, nobody, not a carrier, not a VC-backed start-up, nobody that takes every component of what it means to manage a fertility benefit and addresses it. And so at the end of the day, a lot of people have marketing materials and have a lot of claims, but there is a reality.” — CEO Peter Anevski at 2022 JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, 1/11/22"

"CFO Reagan: “You're thinking about the Health margins, we are now -- and we continue to believe that the Health margins, which were very strong in the quarter, continue to be sustainable.”; CEO Krone: “We were able to sell part of the business that really wasn't in our portfolio. Clearly, that would have been lower-margin for us.” — JPMorgan, Leidos Earnings First Look, Oct 29, 2019"

"GlobalOnePay Inc was a named division and legal entity of Pivotal Payments Inc. and is still listed as “Active” according to Texas state filings with CEO Fayer as Director and President. We see from Texas legal filings that on April 5, 2016 it assumed the name of Fifth Manhattan, for which it is conducting business. The form was signed by a former legal counsel of Pivotal Payments."

""We have great assets, we are in Northwest Florida, 300,000 of our acres are within 40 miles of that new airport. We have development expertise; we have an extremely strong balance sheet to weather whatever storms coming our way. We have a new international airport unprecedented in the United States and we are poised for growth." — Britt Greene, CEO, Raymond James Conference 3/9/10"

""We are a technology company with a host of patents" — Fran Rathke, GMCR CFO; "I would define our company today as really a single serve beverage company that is sitting on top of this magnificent technology, call it disruptive technology platform" — Larry Blanford, GMCR CEO; "ETF on the rapid-growing single-serve market" — Jim Cramer; "We are the iPod of coffee" — GMCR Management."

""Obviously, Florida is the strongest. I mean it's just crazy how much Florida is growing." — CEO Smith, Analyst Day Oct 4, 2023. "Clearly, when you look at our states of Florida and Tennessee and South Carolina are just -- have great funding programs and are very, very active. Florida is clearly experiencing just an incredible amount of migration." — CEO Smith, Q1 2024 Feb 9, 2024."

""Our customer doesn't come to us expecting a Nordstrom's level of in-store shopping experience. They want value, treasures, merchandise on the floor and clean restrooms, and we need to meet those expectations," [CEO Steve] Fishman said in 2005. ... "We're an enigma," he said at an investor conference this month. "It's been a real challenge for the marketplace." — CEO Steve Fishman"

""In 1994, season passes to Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey averaged $75... Fast forward 25 years to 2019, and we were still charging an average of only $75 for our season pass. Despite the fact that we have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in our parks..." — Selim Bassoul, CEO, Six Flags (NYSE: SIX), Q2 2022 SIX Earnings Conference Call, August 11th, 2022"

""Success and succession are fundamentally different objectives for CEOs. Someone in Mr. Iger's seat has too many competing interests and conflicting incentives to handle both... the guy who gets you lost in the woods isn't the right guy to find your way out." — Charles Elson, Founding Director of the University of Delaware's Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance, December 2022"

"Research and Development. As a company specializing in sales and marketing, scil does not conduct its own research or development. — scil animal care German Entity's 2019 Financial Report. Yes. So they do have good products. They also have a great internal R&D team. Their technical team is extraordinary. And they have some very nice projects in progress. — Kevin Wilson, Heska CEO"

"“We’ve always looked at our MLPs as a financing vehicle, and we use them when there’s a better cost of capital” — Historic Comments from SE CEO Greg Ebel. “Our MLP drop-down strategy is already yielding positive results for investors.... total market capitalization of Spectra Energy and Spectra Energy Partners has increased by $6 billion” — Current Comments from SE CEO Greg Ebel."

"The first $500 million of synergies is expected to create a company with EBITDA margins of over 20% and annual EBITDA of over $3 billion, giving us the firepower to reduce the leverage ratio to 3 times to 3.5 times within two years to three years and then, subsequently, to deploy capital to create further value beyond our organic agenda. — CEO Michael Polk – Q4 2015 Earnings Call"

""Volumes delivery, asset utilization and cost management, each require discipline, determination, attention to detail and a mindset that every barrel and every dollar matter. That is the mindset and culture of today's Suncor." — Rich Kruger, Suncor CEO, February 6, 2025; "We also delivered on our goal of improving refining performance..." — Mark Lashier, Q4 2024 Earnings Release"

""When I look back over the past five years, I think that as we look at our roadmap, there are probably areas where I wish we had innovated on faster in retrospect and maybe categories we had entered more aggressively. We ultimately did a bit of a reset with our product strategy and go to market model going back about kind of two to three years ago." — CEO Aaron Levie, June 2021"

""Yes, remember, we -- you could arguably say we had 10 to 15 key patents burn off at the last -- last part of last year and I call those CAD/CAM patents which means you could design something on a computer screen and then 3D print it and that's what choked most companies from getting into the marketplace because you really couldn't scale." — Joseph Hogan – CEO, Align Technology"

"“...The entire episode has also revealed the limitations of ‘Disney nice.’ Avoiding face-to-face conflict, at least at the CEO and board level, fostered an environment where Iger and Chapek couldn’t hash out their differences. Executives who openly challenged others — Mayer, Rice, McCarthy — were ultimately dinged for their frankness...” — CNBC (Alex Sherman, September 6, 2023)"

"Freedom Holdings generates 85% of its revenues and 95% of their margin lending from FFIN. FFIN generates the majority of its revenue from Russia. FFIN is a controlled entity by Freedom's CEO, who owns 75% of Freedom's stock and therefore has an overwhelming incentive to use FFIN as an illegal piggy bank to funnel funds from Russia into FRHC to manipulate its earnings or stock."

""A number of people in our process actually advised that we not increase our bid significantly, that we move up in smaller increments, and I came up with the idea of bidding significantly higher because I thought it was the best way to cause Comcast to fold its tent, to ultimately cease bidding." — Robert A. Iger, CEO & Director, MasterClass on Business Strategy and Leadership"

"“Volumes delivery, asset utilization and cost management, each require discipline, determination, attention to detail and a mindset that every barrel and every dollar matter. That is the mindset and culture of today’s Suncor.” — Rich Kruger, Suncor CEO, February 6, 2025; “We also delivered on our goal of improving refining performance…” — Mark Lashier, Q4 2024 Earnings Release"

"CEO Gerald Hassell: "It's part of our goals that if we get a 4%, 5% revenue growth in a range, we should be able to produce positive operating leverage" — CEO Gerald Hassell. CFO Todd Gibbons: "Our core fee business has been growing at about the 3% to 5% range...on the lower end of that, to generate positive operating leverage...is going to be challenging" — CFO Todd Gibbons."

"“Our product development stems out of our own research and development labs. It comes from UCLA where we have the Mark Hughes Cellular Lab there, University of Mississippi where we have a botanical research lab in the Thad Cochran Center down there. We have doctors placed and scientists placed throughout the world, nutrition experts.” — Michael Johnson, Herbalife CEO, 9/3/08"

""The board should exercise objective judgement on corporate affairs and be able to make decisions independently of management. The roles of chairperson and CEO should not be held by the same individual." — NBIM; "We generally support proposals requesting the separation of the CEO and chair roles." — CalPERS; "The board should be chaired by an independent director." — CalSTRS"

"A number of people in our process actually advised that we not increase our bid significantly, that we move up in smaller increments, and I came up with the idea of bidding significantly higher because I thought it was the best way to cause Comcast to fold its tent, to ultimately cease bidding. — Robert A. Iger, CEO & Director, MasterClass on Business Strategy and Leadership"

"“because we had to change parts and add resources,” — Lasertec CEO; “...the current source cost, together with the current stage cost, doesn't make sense. I don't think they can shave a lot compared to KLA and, in a 2x-led price war, it doesn't add up to me... we are around—we are $23-24 million.” — Former KLA executive in a leadership role in their EUV mask inspection group"

""Dated commercial strategy" — Barclays, April 2024; "Lost the passion for low-cost" — Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary, March 2024; "Systemic failure... to modernize" — SWAPA (Pilots' Union), December 2022; "Industry passed them by" — Southwest Shareholder, May 2024; "Outdated approach" — Bernstein, January 2023; "Sat out the industry's evolution" — J.P. Morgan Webcast, May 2023"

""Dated commercial strategy" — Barclays, April 2024; "Industry passed them by" — Southwest Shareholder, May 2024; "Lost the passion for low-cost" — Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary, March 2024; "Outdated approach" — Bernstein, January 2023; "Systemic failure... to modernize" — SWAPA (Pilots' Union), December 2022; "Sat out the industry's evolution" — J.P. Morgan Webcast, May 2023"

"These results are a testament to our store associates' hard work and dedication, reflecting their tireless work to drive sales and engagement with our homeowner and Pro customers daily. We are happy to report that their efforts continue to result in high customer service scores across all our touch points, which helps set us apart from our competition. — CEO Taylor, Q1 2024"

""Dated commercial strategy" — Barclays, April 2024; "Industry passed them by" — Southwest Shareholder, May 2024; "Lost the passion for low-cost" — Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary, March 2024; "Outdated approach" — Bernstein, January 2023; "Systemic failure... to modernize" — SWAPA (Pilots' Union), December 2022; "Sat out the industry's evolution" — J.P. Morgan Webcast, May 2023"

""Dated commercial strategy" — Barclays, April 2024; "Industry passed them by" — Southwest Shareholder, May 2024; "Lost the passion for low-cost" — Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary, March 2024; "Outdated approach" — Bernstein, January 2023; "Systemic failure... to modernize" — SWAPA (Pilots' Union), December 2022; "Sat out the industry's evolution" — J.P. Morgan Webcast, May 2023"

""Dated commercial strategy" — Barclays, April 2024; "Industry passed them by" — Southwest Shareholder, May 2024; "Lost the passion for low-cost" — Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary, March 2024; "Outdated approach" — Bernstein, January 2023; "Systemic failure... to modernize" — SWAPA (Pilots' Union), December 2022; "Sat out the industry's evolution" — J.P. Morgan Webcast, May 2023"

""A clean room has been newly established...and is being used as a research and development base from July 2023." — Lasertec Management. "I would like to ask you about production capacity...how much will production capacity grow?" — Hirakawa (BofA Securities Japan). "At this time, we have not announced when it will end or how much production will expand." — Okabayashi (CEO)."

"Well, if you look at where we're trading today based on 2025 consensus earnings, we're trading at something like an 8.8, 8.9 multiple, that's more than one turn above our refining competitors. So, we believe there is some recognition of [the value of the midstream business] in the shares today. — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, Piper Sandler Energy Conference, March 18, 2025"

"Well, if you look at where we're trading today based on 2025 consensus earnings, we're trading at something like an 8.8, 8.9 multiple, that's more than one turn above our refining competitors. So, we believe there is some recognition of [the value of the midstream business] in the shares today. — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, Piper Sandler Energy Conference, March 18, 2025"

"With respect to Viterra, I'm not going to comment on whether it's included in those 13 or 14 assets. But what I can say is that we don't believe Viterra is accurately reflected in the value of the Glencore share price. So we are looking at ideas around Viterra to be able to provide that see-through value in our share price for our shareholders. — Glencore CEO, Feb 15, 2022"

"Well, if you look at where we're trading today based on 2025 consensus earnings, we're trading at something like an 8.8, 8.9 multiple, that's more than one turn above our refining competitors. So, we believe there is some recognition of [the value of the midstream business] in the shares today. — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, Piper Sandler Energy Conference, March 18, 2025"

"We are thrilled to have someone of Allan's background and caliber joining Pivotal and taking on this critical role. With the industry becoming increasingly competitive, Allan's proven track record of tactical sales, marketing and strategic partnerships will provide us with new growth opportunities and further enhance our position as a payments industry leader. — CEO Fayer"

""Importantly, physicians are moving more and more to oral therapies, are looking more and more to oral therapies. And in those oral therapies, routinely, physicians select S1P modulators over JAK inhibitors. And when we put blinded profiles in front of physicians, they routinely select etrasimod over ozanimod." — Amit Munshi, CEO & President of Arena Pharma, January 2019"

"Amcor's CEO touted "flow forward" instead of "flow back" from a cross border deal. Flow back occurs when investors sell an acquiror's shares in a cross border deal, usually from technical considerations. Our analysis calls into question his statement, and shows that actual fundamental owners of Bemis have been selling, while index/ETF owners have only moderately added."

""Our pricing in November [2015] really tried to price in some of the labor costs that we anticipate and that are happening...but if you're not going to add some price with, whether it's minimum wage, whether it's overtime...you are going to have to get it somewhere." — Sally Smith, Buffalo Wild Wings CEO and President, Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference June 2016"

"The sale of these surgical products will strengthen our ability to focus our resources across our portfolio... This transaction underscores our strategic focus on high-growth, high-margin categories where Hillrom can demonstrate leadership and supports our commitment to deliver on our promise of Advancing Connected Care. — John P. Groetelaars, Hillrom President and CEO"

""It is massively important that EnVe's can be easily connected to eGates, something we have been passionate about for a long time. eGates drive automation, security and member experience. We are piloting eGates in select airports today and absolutely believe this technology should be a cornerstone of modernized airport infrastructure." — CLEAR CEO (Q4'24 earnings call)"

"We are very pleased to link the name Pramac Racing to Alma, I thank Luigi Scavone [Alma Group CEO] for the enthusiasm with which he joined our team. We are proud to have as title sponsor a group like Alma that perfectly understands the dynamics of the labour market, always looking for a constant growth in terms of professionalism and results. — Campinoti (Generac EVP)"

"I would say, it's hard to say, Liam. I mean, it will come down to what opportunities there are. We want to maximize value on for those -- for that stake. The lockup is until July 2. I don't think anyone should expect us out in the market selling these shares on July 3. We will work very closely with Bunge and Greg Heckman. He's running a great business. — Glencore CEO"

"Spruce Point observes that insider stock sales began around the time the CFO and CRO departed. CEO Movchan also started selling stock at year end 2023 with two large blocks of 100K and 150K at $10.00 per share. In addition, the new 10-K reveals that CEO Movchan enacted a 10b5-1 program on March 14, 2024 to enable the sale of up to 400,000 shares through Dec 31, 2024."

""In closing, I wanted to emphasize that our business model and philosophy regardless of short-term volatility, we'll remain laser-focused on operational excellence, capital discipline, long-term shareholder value creation, and returning that value to shareholders while fortifying our balance sheet by continuing debt reduction." — Former CEO Mark Little, July 29, 2021"

""This consortium is so named because we are equal partners with Thales on this project... So we expect it to be very much a 50-50 partnership." — CEO Lance, Q2 2018 Conference Call. "Industry officials familiar with Telesat's LEO bidding process have said the company is all but certain to request an equity investment on the part of its major suppliers" — Space Intel."

"“And picking -- the tuck-ins are easy. Those -- we were good at that, and we'll keep doing those tuck-ins. But when we're talking about multibillion-dollar deals, then making sure we pick the right companies. And our track record has been pretty good so far, and I think we'll continue to be a disciplined acquirer.” — CEO Lobo, Morgan Stanley Conference, Sept 13, 2021"

""The investment from KKR is a strong vote of confidence in our vision, strategy, and continued efforts to increase growth and profitability. KKR is one of the world's leading technology investors with a deep understanding of our market and a proven track record of partnering successfully with companies to create value and drive growth." — CEO Aaron Levie, April 2021"

""[We] designed our mid-cycle methodology around the 2012-to-2019-time frame. You had cycles of strong margins and weak margins during that period of time." — Phillips 66 Investor Relations, March 14, 2024; "The biggest delta is in refining and well below mid-cycle refining environments baked into the '25, '26 outlook." — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, January 7, 2025"

""[We] designed our mid-cycle methodology around the 2012-to-2019 time frame. You had cycles of strong margins and weak margins during that period of time." — Phillips 66 Investor Relations, March 14, 2024; "The biggest delta is in refining and well below mid-cycle refining environments baked into the '25, '26 outlook." — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, January 7, 2025"

"In closing, I wanted to emphasize that our business model and philosophy regardless of short-term volatility, we'll remain laser-focused on operational excellence, capital discipline, long-term shareholder value creation, and returning that value to shareholders while fortifying our balance sheet by continuing debt reduction. — Former CEO Mark Little, July 29, 2021"

"I don’t like the Transmedics people that much...a lot of people are very pissed off with the company...because they are acting too greedy and predatory. I really support that letter from that Congressman. Again, a lot of people in different transplant centers are very pissed off with the company.... I can tell you, I hate the CEO. — Transplant surgeon at Vanderbilt"

"HLF CEO Michael Johnson: “The FTC settlement is an acknowledgment that our business model is sound” — Herbalife. Carl Icahn: “The FTC settlement announced today, coming after a two-year investigation also concluded that Herbalife is not a pyramid scheme” — Carl Icahn. “I do not endorse that statement [referencing Icahn’s statement].” — FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez."

"“…from a P&L point of view, what is a traditional product sale on day 1 by year 3 or year 4 transitions to a full as-a-service subscription recognition…the benefit we have is we don’t have to go and replace our installed base. In our model, we don’t have that replacement sale, right? …we are able to keep that original array, modernize it. Well, if” — CEO Giancarlo"

"“... nearly 50% of our order volume is now being fulfilled out of our Ohio pharmacy and fulfillment center...I'm excited to share by year-end 2022, we believe nearly 100% of our services and treatments will be filled via our verticalized infrastructure, further unlocking efficiencies and capabilities consumers are looking for.” — CEO Dudum on Q2 2021 Earnings Call"