Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"We believe Rollins' recent levered purchase of Fox Pest Control for $339 million in April 2023 is a departure from its recent acquisition strategy and an indicator of challenges in customer acquisition growth."

"DLO's choices on governance and operations seem less-than-ideal if the goal is to operate an efficient global payment processing business, capable of handling many billions of dollars per year in transactions."

"The types of questions routinely raised by investors signal the areas to be clarified and addressed as part of an optimisation of SCT's capital allocation framework to maximise long-term value for stakeholders"

"While food safety risk can never be completely eliminated, we think Chipotle has done an excellent job of significantly reducing the risk of another incident while maintaining the quality and taste of its food"

"We note that there will be other important headwinds to member growth in 2023, including: (1) additional layoffs in 2023, (2) reduced hiring at existing clients, and (3) potential client losses to competitors."

"In no event shall Bonitas or any of its affiliates be liable for any claims, losses, costs or damages of any kind, including direct, indirect, punitive, exemplary, incidental, special or consequential damages."

"As of February 7, 2024, the FOA has been amended to (1) further increase and more immediately recognize the potential reduction in PSH performance fees, and (2) align PSH shareholders with PSCM's future growth"

"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."

"In order to begin addressing the operational issues raised throughout this letter, we believe Commvault should immediately initiate a comprehensive operational review (the “Operating Review”) led by the Board."

"Nevro is a top 50 medical device company by market cap and an extreme outlier on two counts. First, it has just about the worst economics in the top 50, a stark reminder of just how atrocious a business it is."

"Particularly given the overall body of facts, it is difficult for us to think of this accounting practice as anything other than a venal move to create the impression the company is larger than it actually is."

"Oasis proposes freezing the K27 Equity Compensation Plan and introducing a new long-term incentive plan based on feedback from institutional investors, peer benchmarking and input from third-party consultants."

"The value of buybacks depends on the value of the stock. Historically, some of the most aggressive stock repurchasers have been over-valued companies with managements working to kite already high stock prices."

"Based on the evidence we have collected, we are deeply concerned that the Board seems to be deliberately acting against the interests of shareholders, local communities, and potentially even the UK Government."

"The S&P 500 Equal Weight Index has closely tracked the S&P 500 Index over time, but has significantly underperformed in the last two years as a handful of mega-cap technology stocks has driven outsized returns"

"In sharp contrast to the CEO’s denials, every major transplant center we spoke with described what sounds to us like a racket, where they have no choice but to use TransMedics high-cost jets for air transport."

"Mr. Boychuk’s industry background and scheduled railroadine expertise make him the ideal partner for proposed CEO Jim Barber, representing an operational dream team with vast transportation network experience."

"High fixed interest rates payments risk incentivising Management to bid uneconomically for short-term cash flow at significant long-term risk to shareholders, especially since Management owns very little stock"

"Based on the results of the complete survey, not a single one of the 30 randomly-selected national advertisers stated that they value an ad on Patch more than any other form of broad-based Display advertising."

"10/24/18: HLT Q3 2018 earnings call. Reported US RevPAR of +1% falls short of expectations. While management believes this an aberration, investors react negatively to the perception of a slowing lodging cycle"

"people may just say, let's try...just the regular diazoxide, which is not an ideal drug, let me put it that way...we know that...maybe we would need to admit that Vykat and the generic suspension are the same."

"However, chronic diazoxide therapy to lower insulin in PWS tips the scale to pharmacologically-driven insulin resistance, and prolonged mild/moderate hyperglycemia may cause irreversible type 2 diabetes (T2D)."

"I actually thought it probably wouldn’t be approved...I thought they would be much tougher...and I think there was a very powerful campaign [by associations/families]...families are desperate to see treatment."

"Why was Lightspeed calling hardware sales “Merchant Services” at its IPO? Was it a way to deflect investor attention away from a lower quality revenue source? The fine print discloses these are hardware sales."

"For illustrative purposes, we have assumed the sale of remaining 53% interest in the credit card business and the 19.9% IPO of TIP REIT occurring 1/1/09, to be followed by a full spin-off of TIP REIT on 1/1/10"

"that kind of pressure, the way that they incentivize and change commission structure, it really put pressure on the salesforce because it incentivizes them to go outside those boundaries—and all of them do it."

"Given how often this issue arose in our research, we believe Procept may not be fully disclosing its rental activities, perhaps because such arrangements may be indicative of difficulties closing system sales."

"If I send my own surgeon, it’s going to cost me more money because I have to pay for two transportations...basically, they are forcing you to do it...if I send my own surgeon, it’s going to cost me more money."

"If VRX is able to continue its historic success allocating capital, Valeant’s stock today is worth $330+ per share excluding substantial pipeline upside or the potential for a large, transformative acquisition"

"Assuming Valeant de-levers and maintains 3.5 turns of leverage, allocates free cash flow to acquisitions, and grows at a rate reflective of the strength of its franchises, the stock is tremendously undervalued"

"This transaction could have had the effect of artificially boosting INS’s revenues, given that Flexopt is simply round-tripping INS’s investment into Flexopt back to INS in the subsequent processing agreement."

"Such an action, to prioritize this demonstration, clearly shows that when pushed PR and maintaining the façade of keeping up with the industry leader is more important than progressing engineering and testing."

"While food safety risk can never be completely eliminated, we think Chipotle has done an excellent job of significantly reducing the risk of another incident while maintaining the quality and taste of its food"

"With growing competition strength and the lackluster progress with its own Electrophysiology catheter program, PLSE has to find another thing to keep investors engaged. And it is benign thyroid ablation today!"

"Though the company asserts that EMS was a non-core asset, the results post divestiture have implied that it was the asset that generated an outsized amount of revenue, growth and profitability for the company."

"We conclude that EOS is run by an untrustworthy management team. The financial situation looks dire, and therefore the company is under pressure to paint a rosier picture and get the stock to a high valuation."

"Vivion’s high occupancy rates and 7.0 year WAULT indicate that the number of listings should be few and stable. Instead, between August and December, we found a large and rapidly increasing number of listings."

"Management later discussed writing off around $500k in rent related to Ashford Lane, mostly from the Food Hall, in the Q2 2023 call in July. We suspect this is the rent due from November 2022 through May 2023."

"We believe Enfusion’s share price is wildly overvalued and misunderstood. There are many reasons why its rich 6x revenue multiple should contract which would justify 40% - 60% downside risk to its share price."

"We work with a vast number of sports to collect the underlying data that's required for sportsbooks through contra-relationships or swapping our software with those sportsbooks. — Mark Locke, CEO Genius Sports"

"It was really about getting a very long-term, value-added shareholder around the table, a nine-figure investor that is at the Board, really, really focused on shareholder returns. — CEO Aaron Levie, April 2021"

"The consideration has been determined with reference to, amongst other things, (i) the business prospect, potential profitability, market scalability and product mix — Superb Summit Announcement (June 8, 2007)"

"“Let them know what their role is in developing the brand promise and delivering the brand promise. We want to go beyond their intellectual agreement to their emotional commitment.” — Joe Lee, November 9, 2005"

"prolonged high prices would result if the decline in fossil fuel investment in this scenario were to precede the expansion of clean energy — IEA Executive Director; far from guaranteed — IEA Executive Director"

"“occupancy [apparently] limited with substantial areas vacant. Moreover, as shown in some of the images below, the condition of the building is poor or even derelict in many areas.” — Muddy Waters investigator"

"“to repeat, a useful quantum computer needs to process a set of continuous parameters that is larger than the number of subatomic particles in the observable universe.” — Mikhail Dyakov, a professor of physics"

"“Let them know what their role is in developing the brand promise and delivering the brand promise. We want to go beyond their intellectual agreement to their emotional commitment.” — Joe Lee, November 9, 2005"

"“You are being asked to choose between a Board and management team that are successfully executing a proven plan to build a better and more valuable company, and Mr. Peltz” — David Taylor, CEO, August 14, 2017"

"Now you could argue like LVP, I don't know, we weren't making any money on it. — Former Store Manager. I mean the only category I saw they weren't profitable in was unfinished hardwood. — Former FND Pro Leader"

"What the Frigo is this?! Why is my cheese molded, just bought this big package and find this in it. — Brian Hall. Just what every kid wants in their lunch box. Waxy, hard cheese covered in mold. — Jerry Ferro."

"[Jay] has been a valued colleague and friend, as well as a vital contributor to Disney's success, particularly in his roles as chief financial officer and chairman of our Parks and Resorts division. — Bob Iger"

"A large part of the industry maturing, innovation is happening so rapidly, everyone is trying to catch up, get your house in order because you already know the next wave of innovation is coming. — Zentrick CTO"

"We view these touted advantages in a different way: as a tacit admission that PeptiDream’s own technology has not produced drug candidates that have performed well in the clinic to date. — Muddy Waters Capital"

"“The data transferred by Merlin@home are fully encrypted and meet or exceed all applicable national data privacy and security requirements in all countries where the Merlin.net PCN is used.” — St. Jude Medical"

"“the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on large-size deals and new perpetual licenses,” and “customer uncertainty related to our pending transaction with Advent International Corporation.” — Forescout Management"

"“My experience in the last two years—that’s why I have two. I always have to have a backup with any kind of machine. You cannot really absolutely say there’s no downtime. Things can break.” — Amgen employee #2"

"“We’re concerned that HMA is potentially selling itself short on its CEO search, as we’ve heard from many talented executives few would consider the job with a heavy-handed chairman.” — RW Baird, June 12, 2013"

"“We pack garbage for them anyway and they always take it, but we’ve hit new lows.” — Randal Rahal, former Director of SK Foods (the predecessor to Olam Tomato Processing) on SK Foods prior to its sale to Olam."

""The reason I’m pessimistic is, how does Nevro really win this? They don’t have any new technologies. They only have one real platform, and Omnia doesn’t really attract new customers." — Former Nevro executive"

""must end up disappointing those at the bottom who can find no recruits," — In re Koscot Interplanetary, Inc., 86 F.T.C. 1106, 1181 (1975), aff’d mem. sub nom., Turner v. F.T.C., 580 F.2d 701 (D.C. Cir. 1978)."