Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"It appears that reps would latch onto a patient with narcolepsy and then try to get the physician or their office to expand the diagnosis to cataplexy – even if the patient didn't have it – to “comply” with the label."

"In a chart filed in TASK's SEC prospectus, it claims growth to nearly 1,000 employees by 2012. However, other sources directly from the Company and CEO indicate a workforce closer to 270 – 400 at the same time period."

"The CEO of Porch is Matt Ehrlichman, the former Chief Strategy Officer, a named executive, at The Active Network (formerly NYSE: ACTV), a company that Spruce Point's founder Ben Axler successfully bet against in 2012."

"At least one investor thinks that LSPD is a "Fake it til you make it" story and cobbled together with "cruddy & extremely inferior solutions, hiding behind M&A". Spruce Point will evaluate these claims in more detail."

"Applied to the present case, Accor SA’s misleading representations relating to social and human rights practices – as described in Grizzly’s findings – may distort consumers’ perception of a company’s ethical conduct."

""As a company, we've had a knack of making a friend out of change, turning its uncertainty into opportunity. That's a relationship I hope we're able to renew for a very long time to come." — Henry Taub, Founder of ADP"

"As IonQ, the world’s leading quantum computing hardware and software company, reveals a new rack-mounted quantum computer for data centres, the race is on to go commercial with the technology. — Trade article Dec 2020"

"“Chapman obtained his various degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard University Extension School.” — Potomac Officers Club profile. “Career began at 16 in MIT AI Lab” — SPAC pitch deck."

"[Dauman] sued YouTube to force it to take down unauthorized clips from Viacom shows at a time when others (such as Saturday Night Live) recognized the platform's power to build followings. — SpringOwl Asset Management"

"Harvey Golub's refocusing of American Express in the 1990s has been called "one of the most impressive turnarounds of a large public corporation in history" — Elliott Management (referencing general market sentiment)."

"Based on an analysis by Frost & Sullivan that we commissioned in connection with this offering, we estimate the global total available market for PowerSchool's current set of solutions to be approximately $25 billion."

"The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s “New Plastics Economy Vision” has a long-term goal to shift all plastics away from nonrenewable petroleum feedstocks and energy sources, but this end goal does not equate to a PHA TAM."

""What this tells us is that BWLD could improve its valuation if operations were adapted to run like efficient franchise units – potentially increasing dollar EBITDA double-digits" — Jim Sanderson, Arthur Wood, 3/28/17"

"Elliott’s serial press releases here suggest that it already has all the information it needs to communicate with other shareholders about this issue. — Arconic (in response to Elliott’s request for books and records)"

"$1.2 million is the amount taken during a three-year period. Investigators believe she stole more, but state law does not allow them to look back further than three years — Boston Assistant District Attorney Jim Ayers"

"There is no question, on ETF and index products our margins are huge. It’s the highest margin business for us, or it’s one of the highest margin businesses for us — Larry Fink, BlackRock 4th Quarter 2010 earnings call"

"“Being an S&P 500 index member is a validation of absolutely nothing. We believe Intuit is the worst of its kind as a Company that is both disrespectful to its investors and to the American tax filer.” — CIO Ben Axler"

"In its 2007 10-K, Mettler said capitalized software development costs were amortized in a period "generally not exceeding 5 years", and now it says "generally not exceeding 10 years". — Spruce Point Capital Management"

"「プラズマが動き回る余裕があります。それが輝度の変動の原因になります。制御するのは難しい。一方のUrashimaはレーザー生成プラズマ方式で、電極の間の放電がなくて、レーザーがプラズマを直接生成します。そちらのほうが輝度は安定しますが、輝度を高めるために十分な出力を投入するのが難しい。結果としてプラズマが小さくなりがちです。それによって、装置の照度が不十分になってしまうことがあります」 — ウシオ・フィールド・サービス・エンジニア"

"GCP has told shareholders every quarter for the last four years that non-GAAP measures improve comparability across multiple periods and is what management uses in its financial and operational decision-making process"

"serves on an excessive number of public company boards, which we believe raises substantial concerns about the director's ability to exercise sufficient oversight on this board — BlackRock (in proxy voting disclosure)"

"TAL FY2017 1Q earnings call, CFO Rong Luo, “In July of 2017, Shunshun’s CFO explained on the 2017 Q1 earnings call that Shunshun’s revenue recognition is delayed by ten to twelve months.” — TAL FY2017 1Q earnings call"

"For example, the financial impact of the revenue streams from SanReno JV was described potentially “very significant” in the 2022 JPM Healthcare conference (Jan 4 2022). — Chinook 2023 corporate presentation, Slide 25"

"Smith gestured to the hunting ground and said, 'See those woods over there, well in the South, we take people out there that don't understand our way and behave good.' — Tim Smith (as alleged in Pereira's countersuit)"

"Since [emerging from bankruptcy], the Board has overseen significant accomplishments, and we are proud of the results that our Company delivered during a challenging period. — The SandRidge Board, 2017 Proxy Statement"

"Additionally, the Committee introduced a new metric of free cash flow replacing average days working capital. Free cash flow was instituted in 2019 as a measurement of fundamental performance. — Leidos Proxy Statement"

"This memorandum describes a scheme to stabilise the exchange rate of the Hong Kong dollar, and seeks Members' advice as to whether it should be implemented immediately. — Stabilisation of the Exchange Rate (1983 Memo)"

"The p53 cancer mutation Y220C creates a conformationally unstable protein with a unique elongated surface crevice that can be targeted by mol. chaperones. — Bauer, Matthias R. et al., Future Medicinal Chemistry (2019)"

"BWLD's ROIC in 2015 represented the most significant year-over-year decline in ten years, reflecting the dilutive impacts of 1) higher capital intensity of company-owned stores and 2) dilutive franchisee acquisitions"

"Avery's customer credit quality has been deteriorating. It made an accounting change to move a key customer allowance for returns into Other Current Liabilities, and recently updated its accounting for credit losses."

"Spruce Point has a track record of prescient calls in the consumer and retail sector and has typically found warning signs around inventory. Notably, we warned recently about Oatly, and its shares declined up to 88%."

"Importantly, we note that many of these companies have significantly greater technology intensity than ABML (or any recycling business), and that recycling businesses, in general, trade at even more modest multiples."

"We believe the Board has manipulated annual meeting dates and nomination deadlines to prevent shareholders, and Starboard specifically, from making changes to the Board that we believe would benefit all shareholders."

"For a period of 10 years after its IPO, MPWR omitted disclosure of its raw materials inventory accounts. Given that raw materials can be a powerful indicator of future demand growth, we find this omission concerning."

"Management has stated its investment grade rating is a top priority and above capital return. Yet, CTC has continued to buyback shares while its leverage remains above the level required to prevent a credit downgrade"

"Fake cycle life claims are a dime a dozen among solid-state startups. Infinite Power – a failed Apple acquisition - claimed a preposterous 75,000 cycle life, also based on a tiny, low energy density prototype like QS"

"If this transaction has been partly motivated by political considerations, explain why the Airbus board directors are not in breach of their fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of Airbus and its shareholders."

"Hess conglomerate structure has yielded cost overruns, operational hiccups, and an affinity for overbuilding. Pure play CLR achieved similar production growth and acquired more acres at lower cost and greater benefit"

"We Believe That Viacom is Significantly Undervalued Relative to its Peers and Assets and Can Deliver Material Returns Over The Long-term For Its Shareholders With Changes Made to its Leadership and Board of Directors"

"Marathon can take direct, immediate action to simplify its midstream operations and structure that will result in a lower cost of capital for the midstream business and a forced revaluation for Marathon shareholders."

"If these businesses were valued at Avantor's global multiple (approximately 10x EBITDA) as opposed to their acquisition multiples of around 28x EBITDA, this implies that over $2.4 billion of value has been destroyed."

"CPIPG's fair value policies indicate that once a plot of land or an old building is designated as an investment property under development, the valuer is to project forward the net profit of the fully leased project."

"We view this as an admission that such devices are clearly good enough to perform initial monitoring on asymptomatic people. And if that is indeed the case, why would any healthcare provider pay $250 for a Zio patch?"

"Part V: Twist operates in a commodity, crowded, hyper-competitive space in which it ignited a furious price war and “race to the bottom,” with a me-too offering and a bottom-of-the-barrel price-seeking customer base."

"Tenon EBITDA running at low cycle of USD8m vs peak of USD20m. Margin improvement potential from restructuring, new products launch, new geographies and housing market recovery could drive an EBITDA pick-up to USD23m."

"Over a longer term period, with a best-in-class management team and perfect information, we believe the opportunity exists to reach peer average margins of 48% and potentially further close the margin gap with Amgen."

"Kao needs a leadership that can articulate an ambitious growth strategy built on a cohesive overseas growth plan focused on a core set of brands and backed by a credible marketing, branding and distribution strategy."

"The HIMS engagement partner at KPMG has only one other publicly-listed audit client according to his PCAOB profile: 89bio, a $1 billion market cap pre-revenue biotech company that lacks the structural issues of HIMS."

"Spruce Point observes that FND removed its Adjusted Net Income and EPS bridge following FY 2022 results. We view this as a potential indicator that the Company no longer wants investors to rely on historical results."

"Spruce Point has a track record of producing critical and thought-provoking research related to highly promoted public companies implementing North American roll-up strategies and listed in the Canadian stock market."

"Spruce Point believes that Monster’s core energy brand is being challenged in a changing environment where social media celebrity endorsers and athletes can rapidly launch new products to their millions of followers."

"Elliott engaged a top-tier strategic consulting firm to perform a full review of Marathon's integrated structure in 2016 and 2019. Both times it concluded there were limited dis-synergies from a potential separation."

"We believe the decision to pursue a rushed refreshment process rather than engage constructively on legitimate shareholder concerns demonstrates the Board remains incredibly entrenched and further change is required."

"TWX's divisions are valued by investors based on different metrics: OIBDA, FCF, EPS or yield. Each of TWX's divisions should be positioned to appeal to specific categories of investors: Growth, GARP, Value and Index."

"PeptiDream could, of course, make the states of these partnerships clearer to investors. Instead, as we discuss infra, PeptiDream obscures its lack of success by limiting the useful information it provides investors."

"Because Anthony Powell ascended the Herbalife chain from World Team to President’s Team, his Personal Volume purchasing behavior provides valuable insights into the incentives created by Herbalife’s compensation plan"

"Indeed, of the first 14 search results for the generic term “water flosser” on Amazon, only one is a Waterpik, and more than half the results for an Amazon search of the term “Waterpik” itself are competing products."

"Medical device recall precedents support our view that the devices should be recalled - in our opinion, the risks and severity of the STJ vulnerabilities rise at least to the levels of the following recalled devices."

"Mettler has classified an increasing % of total capex to the corporate segment. On average, corporate capex has been about 50% of total capex since Blue Ocean launched, and a times, amounted to >80% from 2009 – 2012."

"MTD’s valuation expansion in the current cycle is absurd in the context that investors are paying a higher multiple every year for a company that has directed +80% of its total cash flow just to purchasing its stock."