Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"For the year ended December 31, 2022, we recognized revenue of $4.2 million under the China License Agreement for costs reimbursed related to opt-in global studies and manufacturing and supply services. — Chinook 2022 10K, pg.114"

"We continue to execute our innovation strategy, including making acquisitions that expand our self-service portfolio, accelerate Verint's cloud and automation capabilities, and are accretive to earnings. — Dan Bodner, CEO, Verint"

""They have a reputation of excessive billing and their excessive billing, which is not tied to a weekly amount. It's back tied to just what you started asking about the contracts, and the things of that nature." — Industry Expert"

"…you should take into consideration the run rate increase in Patch expenses as compared to the approximately $75 million we spent in 2010… we’re going to spend $160 million a year this year on Patch… — AOL Chief Financial Officer"

""I think there might be three of the original field reimbursement managers there... Out of 15... For the same reason, just the pressure from—the salespeople would understand." — Ex-field reimbursement manager working with Harmony"

"“Mafia business.” — TripAdvisor guest regarding Fairmont Copley Plaza. “at around 2am to be greeted by a gaggle of unnecessarily unattractive hookers causing a fracas in the lobby.” — TripAdvisor guest regarding Ibis Northampton."

"Sales consideration for other divestitures in 2009 included SEK 724 million for certain pre-emptive rights sold in connection with the privatization of Azertel Telekom B.M. in Azerbaijan. — TeliaSonera 2009 Annual Report, page 63"

"Avery's NTM valuation relative to its closest materials and specialty chemical adhesive peers cannot be justified by Avery having higher free cash flow, or faster sales growth potential. It's dividend yield is also below market."

"Spruce Point finds it troubling that GFL restated results and did not notify investors of the change. The large increase of intercompany revenue, and boosting of Solid Waste segment results, is alarming in light of our research."

"We note that Procept quoted an 11% procedure CAGR from 2016 to 2019 in its IPO prospectus. The data above yields just a 3.1% CAGR and raises the prospect that Procept ignored the distorting impact of Rezum volumes added in 2019."

"Kingshott's biography omits his role at Novator Advisors which solicited at least 16 participants in the note fraud Ponzi Scheme. The Trustee asserts "that Kingshott was aware of the implausible story Drier gave many investors.""

"Spruce Point believes there is significant downside risk to DY’s share price as its premium multiple is reconsidered by institutional investors in the face of our strong evidence to indicate that it is masking growing pressures."

"This document is not intended to be used to and does not itself solicit proxies to vote in any TIM shareholders' meeting, nor will EAUK accept proxies from any TIM shareholder to attend and vote in any TIM shareholders' meeting."

"The point of a strategic process is not to sell the Company below its intrinsic value, but to explore whether shareholders could monetize their shares at or above intrinsic value today without having to take any execution risks."

"Allied's auditors, Arthur Andersen LLP, either would not, could not, or did not feel they were required to provide Allied's Board of Directors and Shareholders in 2001 the following assurance they had provided in previous years."

"We are concerned by the apparent divergence of cash costs related to capex and amounts recorded on the balance sheet within PP&E. Through 2023, the reported amounts reconciled, but in 2024 and 2025 it appears that they diverged."

"Dissenting views have no place at the company...different interpretations of the science. You're picking up on it [the discrepancies]. I'm sure a lot of the science team there would do it differently, but it's all up to the CEO."

"Ex-employees and leading researchers we interviewed indicate the notion "violated the laws of physics," was a crackpot idea, and one of the reasons the company doesn't "have the world's greatest reputation" in the battery space."

"Red flag 3: Solid-state cells expand while charging due to properties of lithium metal, dooming efforts to stack them in layers. Experts and ex-employees indicate it’s basically unsolvable: “mechanical breathing,” swollen cells."

"Based on the data below, since the deal was first announced on November 7, 2022, we suspect that Luxor and its affiliates, may have been, or may be currently short IAA to benefit from IAA's shares declining upon a failed merger."

"No. Although independent verification reports in China and toilet paper are often intended to hold the same substance, our research indicates that investors are much better off sticking with 2-4 ply toilet paper in the bathroom."

"We believe McDonald’s needs independent directors who will drive the Company’s commitments to ESG, including animal welfare, forward and protect shareholders’ interests because the current Board has historically failed to do so."

"Spruce Point frequently finds that when companies have trouble meeting their capex projections, it is at best an indication of poor financial management, and at worst a symptom of significant underlying problems in the business."

"Apparently, Spruce Point isn't the only one that has reservations about Director Harker's fitness for the Board. We see that she has consistently received the largest number of votes against her for the annual Director election."

"While Align has relative scale in manufacturing, it has not been pressured to leverage its scale to match competitors' prices until now, as it was effectively the only major player in the clear aligner space until the mid-2010s."

"Twist’s chip can only make smaller oligos, which are a small niche; limited growth opportunity; larger vendors will continue to dominate; Twist may “go bankrupt” or “collapse” because of their pricing; Novartis will reduce spend"

"Mr Christopher Jordinson, a former CEO of UCL Resources Limited (UCL), his nephew, Mr Joe Turner, and Mr Jonathan Breen were convicted and sentenced for their roles in an insider trading scheme which generated $20,000 in profit."

"In our opinion, Broad Ocean (002249 CH) is a weak partner for Ballard in China. Based in South China, it lacks a network into the central ministries that determine policies and SOE's that are the agents for delivering on policy."

"An executive named Gene Reznik touted by CEO Siebel as heading up a key growth initiative recently resigned in Jan 2022. Based on our analysis, sales and alliance executives have short duration tenures, often leaving under 2yrs."

"HIMS has gradually reduced its level of business and financial disclosure since the SPAC transaction. This behavioral pattern is consistent with companies that we've analyzed in the past that have delayed bad news for investors."

"We estimate that, when the effects of acquisitions and foreign exchange of acquisitions and foreign exchange movements are removed, Amdocs organic revenue contracted on an annual basis on average over all quarters since Q1 2014."

"Spruce Point observes a very abrupt shift in language around the acquisition of Carolina Aseptic and Dairy (completed Aug 31, 2021, $148m) and the Reedsburg Facility of Wisconsin Specialty Protein (completed May 29, 2021, $37m)."

"Investors are either giving Marathon no credit for the premium valuation of its leading retail and midstream businesses or almost no value for its world-class refining footprint. Either way: Marathon’s asset value remains locked"

"AOL should be “liberated” to engage in an aggressive broadband access migration, to re-establish its advertising credibility, and to develop (through acquisitions as well as organic growth) new brands, applications and features."

"Distributors purchase products from Herbalife at what HLF deems to be “wholesale” prices and consume the products themselves (“Internal Consumption”) or resell them at retail prices thereby capturing the markup (“Retail Profit”)"

"Axon's financial operating metrics continue to slow down and deteriorate. The fact that this happened ahead of the CFO transition, 10-K delay, and multiple SEC comment letters that Axon failed to promptly address are concerning."

"Once DuPont replaced management and started to execute on Trian’s operating initiatives, including eliminating the matrix structure, standalone DuPont improved organic growth by ~400bps and eliminated ~$1.7bn of costs pre-merger"

"Spruce Point believes there is a certain comedic humor in the ratings and price targets of MSCI. Notably, one of the highest price targets on the Street is Morgan Stanley, who recently upgraded the stock calling it a “Top Pick”."

"We believe there are two potential reasons why: (1) doing so shines a brighter light on the poor results of the non-Live offerings, and (2) Live results contain concerning data points that could potentially disappoint investors."

"We observe that PERI recently retracted key buzzwords from its self-description. However, most alarming is the removal of the reference to the Microsoft Bing partnership which is 35% of revenues and the contract expires in 2024."

"On behalf of Ancora’s clients, the destruction of value at Forward Air since 2023 by Chair George S. Mayes, Jr., Director Javier Polit and Director Laurie A. Tucker requires Ancora to attempt to remove the problematic directors."

"If Darden can execute on the operational opportunities that we will discuss prior to the Special Meeting, the potential for value creation is even greater than the value creation available through a real estate separation alone."

"The Board can begin working collaboratively with its largest shareholders on an orderly boardroom refreshment focused on attracting individuals who possess strong track records of value creation and relevant industry experience."

"It takes 6 months to learn how to even use the machine; extremely complex and difficult to maintain; can become a “very expensive doorstop”; easy to break with high downtimes; Bristol wouldn’t let the “average scientist” use it."

"Yet this even likely overstates the true extent of the misrepresentation, as our field work found many examples of ghost and clone stores which were listed as ‘active’ on BEKE’s platform and existed on paper, but not in reality."

"Since other benefit managers have largely adopted the PGNY treatment protocol, we expect that fertility outcomes, a major (although questionable) marketing point for PGNY, will cease to be a point of competitive differentiation."

"Aldi drives superior retention of its customers. Below, an Earnest Research cohort analysis of new Weis and Aldi shoppers in July 2017 shows 15.9% of Aldi customers continued to shop at Aldi after 12 months versus 10.7% at Weis."

"Based on peer data and an expert interview, we believe that Resideo's average customer life assumption of 12 years in the Snap One transaction to be extremely aggressive and well beyond the 7 – 8 years supported by our analysis."

"As investors watch yet another SPAC fail to deliver on lofty projections and with its cash balance burning away like a rocket with a fuel leak (which Astra has experienced), Astra shares will be left smoldering on the launchpad."

"Conversations with an individual familiar with Astra’s rocket design and manufacturing suggest investors may have to endure an uncomfortably high rate of failure as the company ramps to a targeted monthly launch cadence in 2022."

"Absent M&A, FX impacts, and the beneficial effects of ASC 606 (discussed later), Spruce Point estimates that Verint would have seen top-line contraction, as opposed to the high-single-digit top-line growth reported by management"

"Absent M&A, FX impacts, and the beneficial effects of ASC 606 (discussed later), Spruce Point estimates that Verint would have seen top-line contraction, as opposed to the high-single-digit top-line growth reported by management"

"Similar to Amcor’s merger with Bemis, WestRock acquired KapStone in January 2018 in a $5 billion dollar deal. Since announcing the acquisition, shares have fallen over [50%] from continued revenue misses vs. analysts’ estimates."

"But it indicates his playbook, which we encourage investors to note, as they gauge the veracity of his claims regarding Nevro's supposed safety, efficacy, and lack of explants, particularly next week at the JP Morgan conference."

"Contrary to his May comments that “the use of lower frequencies standalone or combined would increase over time,” it is abundantly clear that Omnia remains just another high frequency stimulator – even about a year after launch."

"United Airlines owned warrants in CLEAR that could be exercised if certain performance conditions were met. All of the warrants were exercised or expired in 2024 and United no longer discloses CLEAR as an investment in its 10-K."

"We estimate that Nova’s share price has near-term downside risk of approximately 45% - 60% ($2.50 - $3.50 per ADS), but under certain scenarios, including a potential loss of a $43.5m Department of War award, up to 100% downside"

"Nova may also be signaling weaker confidence in its prospects. We noticed the Company removed a competitive strength that it has a commercially viable project. Moreover, it stopped referring to its discovery as "truly tier one"."

"Based on multiple interviews with former Carvana employees, a concerning lack of fundamental automotive and logistics know-how at the senior management level contributed to poor execution as market dynamics shifted in late 2021."

"Gross margins materially compressed from the 40% - 50% range to 23% in 2019. The compression was from cost of good sold rising much faster than revenues. This could suggest L3Harris pushed high priced product to its distributor."