Contrarian Corpus
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Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

Every emphasised callout and every pulled quote, extracted slide-by-slide. Search by keyword, filter by slide type or by source.

Showing 10501–10560 of 37,061
callout ceo quote

"Mr. Starke-Wuschko: Why do we have so many adjusted figures! - As a listed company we show IFRS indicators in our annual report along with adjusted indicators. This is normal practice with all publicly-listed companies."

Ströer SE & Co. KGaA · SAX Muddy Waters · p. 56
callout villain critique

"Based on MPWR's disclosed rent expense and square footage of locations rented, it's paying $16 per square foot to rent. Yet, it just paid $707 per square foot to buy its new HQ. Is buying worth 44x the price of renting?"

Monolithic Power Systems · MPWR Spruce Point Capital · p. 70
callout peer gap

"Spruce Point believes that, after a recent period of strong growth as surgeons have shifted away from tPA, Penumbra's U.S. peripheral thrombectomy sales growth will flatten as the existing market becomes more saturated."

Penumbra, Inc. · PEN Spruce Point Capital · p. 54
callout other

"Vivint 3 was a significant EMI for HASI in 2021, meaning HASI recorded at least $20 million of income from Vivint 3. However, Vivint 3 allocated zero profit to HASI, as shown below in the HA Galileo LLC member's equity."

callout executive summary

"Cars.com has experienced an almost two-year continuing trend of customer losses and organic declines in revenue, despite increasing operating expenses, resulting in a pattern of missed expectations and lowered guidance."

Cars.com Inc. · CARS Starboard Value · p. 1
callout ceo quote

"We have every reason to believe that each of these "researchers" is actually a short seller, and each stands to make money – at the expense of our stockholders – when they succeed in driving down the price of our stock."

callout other

"This is completely different from the product of contact mapping, which is 4-10x lower resolution, only touches the endocardium at a few discrete sources, and can only take snapshots of the chamber one region at a time."

Acutus Medical Inc. · AFIB Kerrisdale Capital · p. 15
callout villain critique

"For 1-4 rated loans (~$22.3 billion total loans receivable), BXMT is in total reserving ~$141 million (0.6%), which is a fraction of the ~$2.5 billion to ~$4.5 billion of underlying impairments we think should be taken."

callout ceo quote

"While we believe there are substantial cost savings opportunities at GRP, the Company could produce a dramatic increase in free cash flow simply by increasing the utilization even in the absence of EBITDA/MT improvement"

Arconic Inc. · ARNC Elliott Management · p. 166
callout villain critique

"After two years as CEO, Dr. Kleinfeld re-combined the Chairman and CEO positions. Since then, Dr. Kleinfeld has held both positions. But a lead independent director can be just as good as an independent chairman, right?"

Arconic Inc. · ARNC Elliott Management · p. 243
callout appendix data

"Our conclusion that approximately 90% of the YY Live revenues are fraudulent focuses on the ~70% of YY livestreaming revenue reported by XHL and uses the paid gifts in XHL's database to determine how much of it is fake."

Joyy Inc. · YY Muddy Waters · p. 68
callout other

"AtriCure's open-heart ablation devices and its AtriClip together amounted to about 80% of total 2019 revenues, highlighting the company's current dependence on procedures performed concomitantly with open-heart surgery."

AtriCure, Inc. · ATRC Kerrisdale Capital · p. 10
callout villain critique

"The investment made in Dropbox was small relative to Salesforce's size. Salesforce has made other Pre-IPO investments in companies of similar size (Zoom/Survey Monkey), and even invested in competitor Box years earlier."

Dropbox, Inc. · DBX Spruce Point Capital · p. 8
callout other

"HASI appears to have booked non-cash interest income from SunStrong PIKs totaling $26.4 million over 2019-2021 per SunStrong’s cash flow statement, which is approximately 9.5% of HASI’s interest income during this time."

callout thesis headline

"The Company disclosed its SSR growth rate of 1.2% in 2016. Our industry normalized definition of same store property performance suggests that that SSR declined by 0.8% in that period – an astounding 2.0% overstatement."

Realty Income Corp · O Spruce Point Capital · p. 4
callout other

"Twist basically has no intellectual property, and that there are “20 different companies developing different technologies which have proof of principle...or have the potential to compete quite dramatically with Twist.”"

Twist Bioscience · TWST Scorpion Capital · p. 205
callout process diagram

"The current environment has set the stage for tenants with value-focused concepts, which are performing well in today’s market, to expand and replace underperforming tenants. This mall “refresh” creates a virtuous cycle"

callout villain critique

"NQ's lack of physical presence and virtually non-existent effort to update its merchandise, or build out its retail distribution are a clear sign their fraud is not focused on Chinese consumers, but rather US investors."

NQ Mobile Inc. · NQ Muddy Waters · p. 22
callout scqa question

"If the product mix has not changed to one materially more valuable per kg and import weights are substantially correct, then ELF seemingly must have significant overstatements in its Inventory, COGS, and Sales accounts."

e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. · ELF Muddy Waters · p. 13
callout other

"We also note that, despite the reported growth in the value of Amdocs' European assets, the Company has cut back on its European locations since early 2017, as demonstrated by recent changes to its "Contact Us" webpage."

Amdocs Limited · DOX Spruce Point Capital · p. 39
callout ceo quote

"However, a current review of these supermarket websites does not show the product available. At larger supermarket chains that are stocking the product, we find consistent discounting to as low as $0.71 cents per ounce."

Saputo Inc. · TSX:SAP Spruce Point Capital · p. 83
callout ceo quote

"Despite Disney's advantages, the Company had underperformed over all relevant periods up until the time we emerged with our campaign in October 2023...and even when measured all the way through the end of February 2024."

The Walt Disney Company · DIS Trian Partners · p. 12
callout transition

"By consolidating Hulu and Disney+ into one product and organization, Disney may improve per subscriber unit economics and realize cost efficiencies that Wall Street research analysts estimate could amount to ~$1 billion"

The Walt Disney Company · DIS Trian Partners · p. 102
callout villain critique

"In The Context Of TASK's Chief Accounting Officer Not Having A CPA, And A DWI + Disorderly Conduct Record, We Question The Errors And Aggressive, If Not Outright Incorrect, Financial Assumptions And Presentation Methods"

TaskUs, Inc. · TASK Spruce Point Capital · p. 8
callout appendix disclosure

"In the end, Apellis and Syfovre might have the same fate as Henry Winkler last company he did commercial for, One Reverse Mortgages which ended up getting shut down mired by fraud lawsuits....Just another “Fonzi Scheme”"

Apellis Pharmaceuticals · APLS Citron Research · p. 12
callout villain critique

"Until we receive an explanation of how FMCN could rack up such a large impairment charge without buying ZHPY for well more than it was worth, our conclusion that FMCN deliberately and massively overpaid for ZHPY stands."

Focus Media Holding · FMCN Muddy Waters · p. 5
callout executive summary

"we believe that the observed decline in Company performance may represent a Company Material Adverse Effect as defined in the merger agreement, the occurrence of which could give you legal grounds to terminate the deal."

Forescout Technologies · FSCT Spruce Point Capital · p. 5
callout villain critique

"Machine only works for extremely limited, one-off use cases for certain customers willing to spend years tinkering with it; took expert 2 years and countless tries to get an assay working; few will get utility out of it"

Berkeley Lights · BLI Scorpion Capital · p. 115
callout other

"Economic theory posits that as a firm's weighted average cost of capital rises, the firm's valuation should decline. In a perplexing case, we observe that Stryker's bond holders are selling, driving up its cost of debt."

Stryker Corp. · SYK Spruce Point Capital · p. 18
callout ceo quote

"In order to sell a deal to the Capital Committee and get Board approval or whatever amount you want, Mobius was like over $200 million, you have to be pretty optimistic with what you think your revenues are going to be."

Stryker Corp. · SYK Spruce Point Capital · p. 86
callout villain critique

"Lasertec could be caught with inventory that they're going to have to significantly mark down...they would end up having to impair...could put a lot of pressure on them, which would probably require an asset write-down."

Lasertec Corporation · 6920 Scorpion Capital · p. 48
callout peer gap

"In order to achieve the optimal outcome, we believe Classifieds must be separated, and a more comprehensive and aggressive operating plan must be put in place to drive profitable growth in the core Marketplace business."

eBay Inc. · EBAY Starboard Value · p. 2
callout other

"According to an industry-leading database provider, FTAI sold ~14 aircraft in 2024. Flight tracking databases indicate, and our Consultant confirmed that all the below Mavi Gok transactions are Perpetual Power programs."

FTAI Aviation Ltd. · FTAI Muddy Waters · p. 57
callout other

"If side effects had occurred at the same rate that they did in the SONAR study, there should have been heart failures associated with fluid retention; the fact that we do not makes for an astonishing contrast in safety."

callout demand list

"Starboard hereby demands inspection pursuant to Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”) and requests that the Company immediately make available for inspection and copying the books and records."

Box, Inc. · BOX Starboard Value · p. 28
callout transition

"Ex-Ginkgo employees as well as current employees of these related-party “customers” corroborated our findings that they are located at Ginkgo’s headquarters and are anything but arms-length vendor-customer relationships"

Ginkgo Bioworks · DNA Scorpion Capital · p. 95
callout precedent table

"Recall that Spruce Point called out Maxar Technologies and its use of bank overdrafts which started in 2015. This foreshadowed subsequent challenges in its satellite business, eventual collapse and write-down of assets."

Amcor plc · AMCR Spruce Point Capital · p. 49
callout villain critique

"With a sham pivotal trial and its sole product based on a false theory, reality predictably dawned as Nevro soon faced a device failure crisis leading to its stimulators being surgically removed (“explanted”) in droves."

Nevro Corp. · NVRO Scorpion Capital · p. 44
callout villain critique

"CLEAR does not appear to have a sense of urgency in responding to customer requests to delete data. It took three emails and over two weeks for CLEAR to respond. We find this highly alarming and completely unacceptable."

Clear Secure, Inc. · YOU Spruce Point Capital · p. 44
callout demand list

"By consolidating Hulu and Disney+ into one product and organization, Disney may improve per subscriber unit economics and realize cost efficiencies that Wall Street research analysts estimate could amount to ~$1 billion"

The Walt Disney Company · DIS Trian Partners · p. 102
callout villain critique

"While we acknowledge legal battles can become ugly between parties, we find additional counterclaims by Pereira to be a cause for concern and a poor reflection of Danimer/Meredian's culture if the allegations were true."

Danimer Scientific, Inc. · DNMR Spruce Point Capital · p. 21
callout villain critique

"Why did management again embrace operating-type sale/leaseback agreements so quickly, and in such great magnitude, in late 2018 – not long after promoting the liquidity benefits of its shift to capital lease agreements?"

Plug Power Inc. · PLUG Spruce Point Capital · p. 31
callout villain critique

"UCSF’s billing experience lines up perfectly with the mechanism as described by former TransMedics employees – allagedly flying in teams to run up aircraft charges instead of using a local team that’s already available."

TransMedics Group Inc · TMDX Scorpion Capital · p. 83
callout villain critique

"Spruce Point will illustrate why we believe an extreme financial restatement in 2018 at Leidos Security Detection & Automation LLC in the UAE renders its parent’s financial statement susceptible to restatement risk too."

Leidos Holdings, Inc. · LDOS Spruce Point Capital · p. 34
callout villain critique

"We spoke with a former Lightspeed Manager who expressed a view that Lightspeed was focused on retaining talent following its acquisitions. However, based on our findings, in many of the deals this has not been the case."

Lightspeed Commerce, Inc. · LSPD Spruce Point Capital · p. 62
callout villain critique

"How is Billy Taubman, Taubman's Chief Operating Officer, supposed to provide an independent review when the Company's operating performance - which he is responsible for - massively underperforms its Class A Mall Peers?"

Taubman Centers, Inc. · TCO Land & Buildings · p. 9
callout villain critique

"The company's shareholder Ding Kunming has resolved: 2. Remove and replace Wu Yonghua as Executive Director and Legal Representative with Ding Kunming. 4. Remove and replace Yan Yongle as Company Supervisor with Li Dan."

callout other

"The reduction in cash provided was primarily driven by higher tax payments, the investment in a distribution agreement of select technology and the payment of transaction costs associated with the acquisition of Evoqua."

Xylem Inc. · XYL Spruce Point Capital · p. 68
callout villain critique

"Rather than putting the best people in place to drive shareholder value, the Board seems to be making costly deals and poor decisions at the expense of shareholders in order to insulate Mr. Shaw and incumbent directors."

callout villain critique

"Bottom line: a number of Faraday Future employees loaned Faraday Future tens of millions with money they borrowed from companies associated with YT’s nephew, Ruokun Jia, right as YT was heading into personal bankruptcy."

callout section divider

"Through our research on Mr. Shi and PLTK's history in the past few years, we believe that Mr. Shi has been using PLTK as his piggy bank, which in the long term will cause great damage to the public shareholders of PLTK."

Playtika Holding Corp. · PLTK Grizzly Research · p. 3
callout villain critique

"Finally, and most importantly, this all has a detrimental effect on SGH's balance sheet. As you can see in the chart below, the cash burn eats into the Company's balance sheet and causes a big problem by fiscal Q4 2020."

SMART Global Holdings, Inc. · SGH Wolfpack Research · p. 14
callout appendix disclosure

"Unfortunately for investors, the SEC does not appear (at least not yet) to have pieced together how misleading the company's AFFO figures are, since the AFFO numbers are engineered to exclude their most important costs."

CTO Realty Growth, Inc. · CTO Wolfpack Research · p. 27
callout villain critique

"TSMC cannot be a growth driver or key customer going forward for Lasertec for other reasons – an alarming fact as it is the world’s largest chipmaker and one of the three anchors that every inspection vendor depends on."

Lasertec Corporation · 6920 Scorpion Capital · p. 260
quote villain critique

""If Xerox had known what it had and had taken advantage of its real opportunities, it could have been as big as IBM plus Microsoft plus Xerox combined – and the largest high-technology company in the world" — Steve Jobs"

Xerox Corporation · XRX Carl Icahn · p. 34
quote precedent table

"Novartis said it cannot say much, but it does not expect any problems that would relate to Entresto [newly launching product], nor does it expect any significant impact on other businesses. — Bernstein, October 28, 2015"

Unknown · p. 25
quote peer gap

""McDonald's is using our size and global reach to improve animal health and welfare in the McDonald's supply chain and ensure we source chicken, eggs, beef and pork from producers who share our commitments" — McDonald's"

quote villain critique

"How can Lawrence Kurzius be expected to handle his new responsibilities as Chair and “drive sustainable growth and long-term value for shareholders” when his predecessor sits in the same boardroom? — Ancora Alternatives"

quote villain critique

"“When we launched the first year we did probably a hundred thousand cases, so that could have been between $1 and $2 million of revenue for the first year, and quadrupled in the second year.” — Former Oatly U.S. Manager"

Oatly Group AB · OTLY Spruce Point Capital · p. 50
quote ceo quote

"“I try to approach everything with as much savagery as possible because life’s too short to make small increments,” Leproust told me. “You just have to go big or go home.” — Emily Leproust, Twist CEO, Aug 2022 interview"

Twist Bioscience · TWST Scorpion Capital · p. 33