Callouts & quotes from 3,960+ activist slides

"Dendrites are a real problem, and that's basically where we were at when I left—trying to solve dendrites. It's a showstopper. It's not like paint chips or something like if it happens, you have a few unhappy customers, and you can repaint their car or make them happy. It's a showstopper. The battery's not even safe if you have a short risk. Therefore, it has to be solved 100%. And therefore, the ceramic separator needs to be produced flawlessly. They need to produce hundreds of square meters per vehicle of flawless 5-micron thick separator material. That's a Herculean task. — Former R&D employee; A lithium-lithium symmetric cell is not a real battery cell...I don't believe that they have solved dendrite formation in a real battery. A single layer is nothing. Show me a multiple-layer battery, a one AH, two AH, a commercial-level battery - then I'll believe it. Their data is useless...From a commercial application point-of-view, it's too crude, too immature. — Former R&D employee"

""[W]e believe BWLD company-owned stores could improve margins substantially, by up to 500 [basis points] based on our analysis, by adopting labor practices currently deployed by [franchisees]" — Jim Sanderson, Arthur Wood, 3/28/17; "Our advisor believes there is an opportunity to bring lower performers more in line with the rest of the system, with store-level labor perhaps the largest opportunity. The example of Guest Experience Captains was cited...In his experience, BWLD franchisees are as or more qualified to run a large number of restaurants than corporate personnel" — Nick Setyan, Wedbush, 2/7/17; "[Margin opportunities] exist across labor, operating expenses, and COGS...Diversified Restaurant Holdings, Buffalo Wild Wing's largest franchisee, highlights opportunity for greater margin efficiency. While there are notable differences, including geographic and overall exposure, SAUC has exhibited favorable food & labor margins relative to BWLD" — Dennis Geiger, UBS, 1/5/17"

""If we look at the acquisition, I don't think a great deal has changed on our outlook and our timing. We do obviously know more about what's going on with Rockwood. I think that if anything, we feel better about our numbers, we feel better about our synergies..." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, December 2013; "I don't have the Rockwood acquisition up here, but, again, let me just say that I believe that that is an acquisition that is going to significantly create shareholder value... I think it's a somewhat aggressive number, but I think there's probably room to do even better than that." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, March 2014; "A few weeks ago we successfully completed the acquisition of Rockwood's performance additives and specialty titanium dioxide businesses. As we've now had an opportunity to visit all of our sites, associates, and many of our customers, we feel stronger about this business than ever before." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, October 2014"

""There are a ton of competitors in payments. There are so many third-party providers. Their main competitor I would say is Square, who is very transaction and for the small merchants that do not need inventory management. You are really competing against third-party venders who have all these hidden fees behind what they say the rate is. People are very rate sensitive so there is an initial sticker shock. The other approach that Lightspeed takes is offering a flat rate, you know what to expect every month. There is a big portion of education that I believe they need to do a lot of work on in order to help the product take off." — Former Employee Interview; "It's several hundred, Todd, that we signed in the quarter. It's still pretty early on. So, yeah, less than 1,000." — CFO Nussey, Q4 2019 Earnings Conf Call; "Payments penetration continues to increase with approximately 10% of our GTV processed through our payment solutions." — CEO Dasilva, Q1 2022 Earnings Conf Call"

""We see Starboard stake as a positive – We see the news as a positive as the involvement of an activist further validates the opportunity for value creation at Autodesk." — Citi, June 2024. "We believe Autodesk is a good business that has the potential for multiple expansion due to improved execution... most tend to agree that Autodesk is a great company, but one that needs to improve its execution, investor messaging and margins." — RBC Capital, June 2024. "ADSK has close to a monopolistic market position in AEC software and believe an activist can have ADSK increase its focus on efficiency as it undergoes its agency model transition." — Wolfe Research, June 2024. "The company’s billing system transition, transaction model change and recent financial audit all add complexity and uncertainty. Starboard’s involvement may provide an opportunity for investors to gain greater confidence and clarity and for management to engage with investors." — BofA Securities, June 2024."

"“BlackRock was a founding member of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)...This year, we are asking the companies that we invest in on behalf of our clients to... disclose climate-related risks in line with the TCFD’s recommendations, if you have not already done so.” — 2020 Letter to the CEOs, BlackRock. “In 2021, we initiated a review of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) disclosure requirements, and we are evaluating additional disclosures in the future that will align with TCFD.” — Huntsman Corporation 2021 Proxy Statement. “In 2021, we completed an analysis of the Task Force for Climate-Related Disclosures (TCFD) and will begin to disclose along the TCFD in our next Sustainability Report...We believe moving to a low-carbon economy will make both society and the environment more sustainable. Accordingly, we announced our goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.” — Huntsman Corporation 2022 Proxy Statement."

""BlackRock was a founding member of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)...This year, we are asking the companies that we invest in on behalf of our clients to... disclose climate-related risks in line with the TCFD’s recommendations, if you have not already done so." — 2020 Letter to the CEOs, BlackRock. "In 2021, we initiated a review of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) disclosure requirements, and we are evaluating additional disclosures in the future that will align with TCFD." — Huntsman Corporation 2021 Proxy Statement. "In 2021, we completed an analysis of the Task Force for Climate-Related Disclosures (TCFD) and will begin to disclose along the TCFD in our next Sustainability Report...We believe moving to a low-carbon economy will make both society and the environment more sustainable. Accordingly, we announced our goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050." — Huntsman Corporation 2022 Proxy Statement."

""Darden also issued its most detailed defense of its planned spin-off (or sale) of Red Lobster. However, it remains unclear to us why the combined valuation of the separate companies would exceed current DRI valuation." — BofA Merrill Lynch, March 3, 2014; "...But we continue to believe [management's] plan doesn't address RL problems for investors... It is still unclear how a spin actually improves core guest targeting capabilities/chances for a sales recovery or why multiple expansion would occur." — UBS, March 3, 2014; "We fear management's current plan to spinoff Red Lobster is reactionary and lacking integrity. They haven't given a plan to stabilize and turnaround Red Lobster, but merely an excuse to cast off the struggling chain." — Hedgeye, March 12, 2014; "Despite Opposition, Management is Moving Forward in Divesting Red Lobster: Overall, we believe the Street is disappointed by the divestiture of Red Lobster on its own." — Sterne Agee, March 21, 2014"

"“Dendrites are a real problem, and that’s basically where we were at when I left - trying to solve dendrites. It’s a showstopper.” — Former employee #1; “A lithium-lithium symmetric cell is not a real battery cell...I don’t believe that they have solved dendrite formation in a real battery. A single layer is nothing.” — Former employee #2; “You’re balancing thickness versus number of defects; the defects are the ones with the dendrites.... They were having problems at the coin cell level...it is a very difficult problem.” — Former employee #3; “I don’t know that they’ve completely nailed this. I wouldn’t say that they’ve completely nailed this because there are definitely some issues with what they’ve put out.” — Former employee #4; “[The CEO’s dendrites claim] is a bunch of bullshit ...That’s definitely bullshit...it’s not going to be representative of what you will see in an actual cell...this is just not going to hold good at all.” — Former employee #5"

"“Amdocs is currently evaluating various alternatives with respect to the future development and construction of the new campus, including structures for ownership or long-term lease arrangements. The acquisition costs are not expected to have a material impact on Amdocs' cash position or operating results.” — Press Release Sept 13, 2017; “This investment, if consummated, will be financed from internal cash resources. Moreover, we believe our decision to build a new campus will be accretive to non-GAAP diluted earnings per share over the long term and is a reflection of our confidence in the future success of Amdocs.” — Tamar Rapaport-Dagim, CFO, Amdocs; “During fiscal year 2018, as a result of funding decisions for the construction of the Company's new campus in Israel, see also Note 2, the Company recorded a tax benefit of $28,795 related to the release of withholding and income tax reserves for unremitted earnings.” — FY 2018 20-F page F-30 Dec 10, 2018"

""We view nearly all aspects of the Red Lobster transaction as not particularly compelling." — UBS, May 20, 2014; "Who Knew Lobsters Had Middle Fingers?" — Janney Capital Markets, May 16, 2014; "Destroying a business and giving it away for free is a familiar practice for CEO Clarence Otis." — Hedgeye, May 16, 2014; "We could get to valuations as high as $3.1billion for [Red Lobster], and, particularly considering how tax-inefficient the transaction will be, believe that it was not the best course of action for shareholders." — Credit Suisse, May 20, 2014; "the taxman stole the show" — Stifel, May 16, 2014; "Management's decision to ignore shareholder concerns and go forth with an undervalued sale of Red Lobster... will likely result in meaningful changes at the board level and among senior management." — Buckingham, May 16, 2014; "Count us among the many who believe DRI is destroying shareholder value with this deal" — New Albion Partners, May 19, 2014"

"The revised performance goals were set at aggressive levels that reflected our realistic expectations at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Achievement levels between threshold and target result in payouts from 100% to 200% of target awards. If we achieve corporate adjusted EBITDA of less than 85% of target, the payout for all other components may be capped at target. If corporate adjusted EBITDA is less than 75% of target, the threshold goal, then payment of any other component of the award would be at the discretion of our CEO and the Compensation Committee. The Compensation Committee believes that requiring a minimum adjusted EBITDA threshold be met to receive any payment with respect to the annual cash performance awards both aligns executives' interests with those of stockholders and prevents excessive annual cash performance award payments in times when our financial performance fails to meet our expectations. — 2021 Proxy Statement"

""Should it occur, we would view the separation of TKR’s steel and bearings businesses as a positive." — Gary Farber, C.L. King, 2/20/13; "Our sum-of-the-parts valuation suggests a $69 target price ($52 + $17). However, given the disparate nature of the assets and investors’ preference for pure plays, we believe that an above-average conglomerate discount is likely required to entice investors." — James Kawai, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, 11/14/12; "Our sum of the parts ... suggests a valuation closer to $55, but we agree that the market is unlikely to properly reward either the steel or the bearing business for the secular improvements they have made as long as these businesses remain combined." — Stephen Volkmann, Jefferies Group, 11/29/12; "In the long run, however, we agree with Relational and CalSTRS’s positioning that the company would perform better if it separated into two separate entities." — Samuel Eisner, William Blair, 11/28/12"

""With specific regard to the [short-seller] Report, the Committee concluded that the allegations were either factually incorrect or that there were reasonable explanations as to their non-materiality." — China Agritech, Inc. press release. "FTI independently obtained and reviewed documents which state that as of June 30, 2011, ChinaCast had cash, cash equivalents and term deposit balances reported in the Company's form 10-Q for the second quarter ended June 30, 2011." — ChinaCast Education Corp. press release. "We believe the findings contained in the FTI report should provide some comfort to shareholders as to the integrity of the Company's financial reporting and should serve to distinguish the Company from other Chinese companies that have received adverse publicity after failing to provide adequate verifications with respect to their financial statements." — Daniel Tseung, Chairman of the Audit Committee, ChinaCast Education Corp."

"On September 4, 2015, R&O received a letter from Robert Chai-Onn, Valeant’s Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel. In the letter, which was the first correspondence that R&O had ever received directly from Valeant, Mr. Chai-Onn claimed that R&O, a small licensed California pharmacy, owed Valeant over $69,000,000. However, R&O has never received a single invoice from Valeant in any amount and until September 4 had never received a single demand for payment from Valeant. R&O has requested copies of the invoices, but to no avail. Indeed, it seems that Valeant has no evidence whatsoever to back up its claims. Therefore, R&O believes that one of two things must be true: 1. Valeant and R&O are victims of a massive fraud perpetuated by third parties; or 2. Valeant is conspiring with other persons or entities to perpetuate a massive fraud against R&O and others. — R&O Pharmacy LLC Complaint for Declaratory Judgment"

"Booms and busts in stock prices are often greatest in speculative mining and technology plays that tantalize investors with optimistic revenue and profit outlooks, yet often come from unproven claims and companies with a history of failure. We saw this in 2012 and have a proven record of calling out stock promotions in these sectors, namely Liquidmetal Technologies (OTCBB: LQMT) and US Antimony (AMEX: UAMY). We see extreme parallels between these promoted failures and American Battery Metals Corp (OTCBB: ABML) and Comstock Mining Inc.(NYSEAmex: LODE). These companies appear to have hitched their wagon to investor enthusiasm for electric vehicle battery recycling, and their prospective plant’s proximity to Tesla and its Gigafactory in Nevada . We recommend investors exercise extreme caution at these extended valuations and urge shareholders to closely examine why we believe companies are Strong Sells. — Ben Axler, CIO Spruce Point"

""Crown Castle’s stock has meaningfully underperformed that of American Tower and SBA over the last several years, and this divergence merits attention. Crown Castle’s organic domestic tower growth has lagged its peers. It bought into fiber in a big way just as the sheen on that business model was wearing off and fiber solution solutions growth has come in shy of investor expectations." — MoffettNathanson, January 2020; "We believe CCI shares could underperform near-term as the surprising pull-back in fiber leasing combined with unchanged capital investments may raise new questions as to whether or not fiber assets should trade at a discounted multiple to Towers, despite the positive long-term demand narrative for fiber infrastructure & small cells." — Citi, July 2019; "The Tower stocks have enjoyed a strong run so far in 2017,though CCI has lagged with a ~16% gain compared to over 30% for both AMT and SBAC." — BAML, October 2017"

"“We believe the time has come for material changes in leadership here as BOX remains in a “no-man’s land” for investors – not enough growth and not enough margin. We have covered tech/software for 18 years and have never come across a company that is a leader in a $40B TAM and continues to mis-execute so badly. The commentary every quarter of “strong demand”, “sales productivity/enablement improvements” and “solid momentum” in the business have not correlated with decelerating growth across all metrics for a number of quarters. It is also amazing to us the Board of Directors has done nothing to push the issue. We believe this is potentially an activist investor’s dream but with five of the nine board members being founders/VCs we see a bit of a roadblock...Management is now two years into a go-to-market transformation with no indicators pointing to any sign of success. Something must change.” — Craig-Hallum, August 2019"

""If we have too many people, let's right-size fast; let's get it done by the end of the third quarter.' I explained that what I meant by right-size is straightforward: 'We have to benchmark our costs versus our competitors and then achieve best-in-class status'. I also remarked that we had to stop saying that IBM didn't lay off people" — Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM (1993 – 2002). "I've had a lot of experience turning around troubled companies, and one of the first things I learned was that whatever hard or painful things you have to do, do them quickly and make sure everyone knows what you are doing and why. Whether dwelling on a problem, hiding a problem or dribbling out partial solutions to a problem while you wait for a high tide to raise your boat - dithering and delay almost always compound a negative situation. I believe in getting the problem behind me quickly and moving on" — Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM (1993 – 2002)."

""We view nearly all aspects of the Red Lobster transaction as not particularly compelling..." — UBS, May 20, 2014; "Who Knew Lobsters Had Middle Fingers?" — Janney Capital Markets, May 16, 2014; "Destroying a business and giving it away for free is a familiar practice for CEO Clarence Otis." — Hedgeye, May 16, 2014; "Management's decision to ignore shareholder concerns and go forth with an undervalued sale of Red Lobster..." — Buckingham, May 16, 2014; "In short, in our eyes, "the taxman stole the show" by taking 25% of the gross proceeds." — Stifel, May 16, 2014; "Count us among the many who believe DRI is destroying shareholder value with this deal to sell Red Lobster for $1.6 billion post tax and transaction costs" — New Albion Partners, May 19, 2014; "It is unconscionable that the Darden Board would allow the Company to sell its Red Lobster business for what amounts to a 'fire sale' price" — Barington, May 19, 2014"

""We are skeptical that TXN can achieve their revenue targets given its growth rate of mid-single digits. Given elevated capex and depreciation, we believe TI’s margins will remain under pressure through 2026 unless capex is cut." — Citi; "Texas Instruments (TXN): We wish we could all have a 15-year investment horizon...downgrading to Underperform" — AB; "We are initiating coverage of TXN with an Underweight (UW) rating and $150 price tgt. Our rating reflects a concern TXN can’t achieve rev tgts & related utilization; i.e., 300mm capacity expansion plans intended to reach $30B FY26 rev. 19% CAGR." — Wells Fargo; "We still believe investing in mature node capacity is the right strategic decision long-term. That said, with a 20% CAGR off 2024 Street estimates needed to reach 2030's $45B capacity target, we think the magnitude of the development is difficult for investors to underwrite, even with subsidies." — Cowen"

""Nevro's always played a lot of games. Rami, their previous CEO, was a notorious [redacted]. He just wasn't very on the up-and-up....It's just a lot of smoke and mirrors. There's not a lot there. There's a joke going around that we're one annual NANS meeting away from proving that Nevro's high frequency cures Covid. No matter what it is, Nevro says their device treats that, They put this data out that people don't even read anymore. It always shows these ridiculous numbers. They'll come up with numbers to show that high frequency treats cancer. No one buys their data." — KOL and high volume implanter; "Nevro has one size fits all. I don't believe anything they say and I doubt that their PDN claims are going to be any better. Every Nevro study is the same. It's a bunch of shit and you might get some initial improvement and then the same problems a year later." — KOL and former high volume Nevro implanter"

""We believe the “nimbleness” of Sika’s organization is a feature of its unique culture that has been enhanced under the tenure of CEO Jan Jenisch, who decentralized the organizational structure, introduced P&L responsibility at the country level one step away from the customer, and implemented a new incentive scheme and performance management system. We think Sika’s new freedom will only serve to improve the company’s reactiveness, making it even less sensitive to cycles." — Bernstein Research, April 2019; "In this section...we highlight the new geographical based structure...The Group’s previous structure relied on a matrix-based system with three sectors of activity (Innovative Materials, Construction Products and Building Distribution) while the new structure aims to facilitate more rapid decision-making while eliminating several approval levels for most decisions." — J.P. Morgan, November 2019"

"We sold our holding in Kao as the company continues to underperform its peers — AVA Investment Managers. Killer Strengths, Just Needs a Killer Growth Strategy — SMBC. We believe Kao can do much more to raise the profile of its successful brands outside of Japan and expand overseas consumer product sales, especially given population demographics in Japan provide a headwind to future domestic growth. Historically Kao’s dominant position in its domestic market may have given it a ready source of stable cashflows, but the company needs to look abroad for its growth in the future. — LINDSELL TRAIN. Kao has great technology and many interesting products, but management has yet to translate this expertise into strong revenue-generating products — CLSA. the operating margin now looks likely to stop falling. However, we see no signs of next-generation growth businesses or other growth drivers — J.P.Morgan."

""Nevro tried to innovate, and I give them credit for that, but they're struggling and trying to survive. So they're trying to come up with these studies demonstrating superiority. The flawed design of their studies defines them as a company and they're failing." — KOL and high volume implanter; "There's no Rosetta Stone in medicine. There's no one thing that can treat everything but Nevro will have you believe that one therapy can treat every type of pain and all you have to do is put it in the same spot... It goes against everything in science and medicine." — KOL and high volume implanter; "The Hawthorne effect is well documented in science... Every patient in Nevro's study knew which device they got. Doctors believe the Hawthorne effect completely skewed Nevro's results. It happens in all their studies. Everybody knows which device they're getting. Nevro's always played a lot of games." — KOL"

""We view CTB's asset quality to be of a higher risk than its peer group...CTB's credit card franchise is more narrowly linked to the Canadian Tire brand; supporting its Triangle Rewards loyalty program." — Moody's, June 11, 2019; "We believe CTB's class of credit card customer is higher risk than peers and during an economic stress, the bank will experience higher than-peer credit losses... This reflects its chosen market niche of focusing on customers who primarily use a credit card as a source of financing (revolving balances), rather than payment." — Moody's, June 11, 2019; "CTFS continues to expand its financial services business... While CTC has a long history of prudently managing risk with smaller, tightly focused financial services operation, continuous growth could lead to the possibility of evolving customer profiles, which may result in additional risk." — DBRS Report, April 8, 2019"

""Consider using return on invested capital ("ROIC") as a long- term performance metric instead of revenue or relative TSR." — Shareholder Request, FY19 Proxy; "We recognize that ROIC has a good correlation to share price in many industries, however we do not currently use ROIC as an internal performance measurement and we believe that, where possible, compensation metrics should match the day to day metrics used to run the business. We also note that return on investment metrics like ROIC are not common in the technology industry where it is critical to continuously reinvest for growth and to maintain leading edge products. We continue to believe that revenue growth is the most significant driver of our business performance and we pair revenue metrics with profitability metrics to ensure that management is focused not only on growth, but on profitable growth." — Management Response, FY19 Proxy"

"“We think that this business -- that parts of this business are very attractive from a growth basis. There's tremendous synergy with our existing business... We see areas of opportunity to further technology with our surfactants technology, our amines technology and with some of our other technologies that we have in house, we see opportunities to expand into the textile industry here and move further downstream.” — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, February 2006; “When you think about our three differentiated businesses, we have good intermediate positions in MDI and we have formulation businesses that really bring it right down to the customer level... And we believe this Textile Effects business will give us that formulation approach that is close to customers, particularly in Asia, where we can move beyond the intermediates into the more formulation area.” — Kimo Esplin, CFO, February 2006"

"This transaction is troubling from a governance perspective, brings significant additional risks around the balance sheet, integration and channel conflict, and highlights the challenges in FWRD's core business model. — Stephens. [The approximately 40% share price] decline puts significant execution pressure on the company just to recoup such losses, never mind demonstrating that the deal was a risk worth taking in the first place. But it is the questionable governance of the transaction that stands to place FWRD squarely in the sights of activists. — ISS. [W]e believe the rejection of FWRD shares in recent days is more about the board's tactics of exhausting the company's considerable dry powder to bet its future on an asset-light diversification and customer acquisition play, while not offering existing shareholders a voice or vote on the matter before the deal closes. — Susquehanna (SIG)."

""Given the similarities between Hess and CLR’s ND Bakken plays, as an order of magnitude we suggest this is a reasonable starting point for how the market should value Hess’ Bakken acreage…[this] should alone justify a $24 per share uplift from current levels." — Bank of America Merrill Lynch (Sept 20, 2012); "The key, in our mind, to improving relative performance will be demonstrating improved capital discipline through substantially lowered overall spending in 2013 and removing funding risk through additional tax efficient disposals." — Credit Suisse (October 1, 2012); "…The question is whether it needs to cut deeper and more aggressively than it has. An extreme version could involve it becoming a "pureplay" Bakken producer..." — Goldman Sachs (June 11, 2012); "Below is our wish list of the initiatives we believe Hess could take to enhance shareholder value." — Citigroup (July 20, 2012)"

"We note that the “other adjustments” line item is a significant adjustment in your reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP Results, particularly for the year ended January 31, 2016 and 2015. Please tell us the nature of the items included within these “other adjustments” as well as your consideration for further breaking out these items in more detail in your reconciliations. Similar concerns apply to the Form 8-K filed September 7, 2016. — SEC; The “other adjustments” line item within our “Reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP Results” includes restructuring expenses, acquisition-related expenses (including integration costs)... we have chosen to present those adjustments as a single line item in our reconciliation tables. We believe that breaking out the individual items comprising the “other adjustments” line item could unnecessarily clutter the reconciliation tables — Verint Response"

""The start-stop nature of NFL games means that the latency issues that arise from data providers offering a feed from television coverage don't come into play as they might do in other sports... The fact remains that most betting on a match, even in-play, is on the final result. Thus, the case in favor of new types of in-play bets is, as yet, only the stuff of start-up pitch decks." — BettingUSA.com (June 14, 2021); "I do believe the data is being over-valued, and the NFL is not familiar with the challenges of running a profitable sports betting business." — Matt Para, sports betting consultant (BettingUSA.com article); "What I can say to you, is that on a cash basis we anticipate the NFL to be breakeven in 2021, and cash generating thereafter. And indeed, on of course, the life of the contract we anticipated to be profitable." — Mark Locke, CEO (GENI earnings call Q1 2021)."

"“Today, we believe that we have the best pipeline in our history.” — Dr. Bourla, October 30, 2018; “At the same time, we have likely the best pipeline we've ever had at the corporation.” — Dr. Bourla, January 3, 2019; “...what we believe is the best pipeline in our history with good breadth and strong innovation.” — Dr. Bourla, January 29, 2019; “...this company will be, from day 1 after the separation, a best-in-class revenue growth, long term, sustainable story with a relatively unlevered balance sheet at this company and the best pipeline we ever had.” — Dr. Bourla, January 14, 2020; “And if you take a big picture view, over the last decade, we have changed and refocused our approach to R&D. We have improved dramatically its productivity, and we have developed the best pipeline we ever had and one of the best, I believe, in the industry.” — Dr. Bourla, January 28, 2020."

""Where direct printing does work is on flexible packaging where the package is first printed, then packed. For example, a Lay's potato chip bag. If consumer markets move more to flat flexible packaging, that's a disruptive technology for labels. The direct print and type of packaging combined that is a challenge." — Former Avery VP; "Many brands are moving out of rigid containers into pouches (also known as flexibles). From the recycling point of view they are not the best, but have taken a lot of market share. For example, a big part of the pet food market is now pouches. They can be easily opened and closed. Both shrink sleeves and pouches have been undermining the growth of the decorative label market." — 50 Year Pressure Sensitive Industry Label Expert; "Yes, I believe flexible packaging is growing in popularity." — Large Avery Customer In The Packaging Industry"

""Your problem sometimes will sit in the queue for 30 minutes or one hour, depending on how busy their quantum computer is. So, 30 minutes to do the setup, and then submit the job and then you have to wait for the job to come back, and sometimes you have to wait until the next day for the job to come back." — Quantum computing expert; user of IonQ's machine; quantum computing faculty member. "The device that they used back then, it was a 5-qubit device, and I believe IonQ right now has an 11-qubit device... for every computational experiment that we ran, we needed to calibrate the gate from scratch, and it was a manual process. Now, this process has been fully automated, and I guess a fully automated process may not be doing as good of a job as the human was back in the day" — Leading quantum computing expert who has worked closely with IonQ and its founders."

"“...operating priority is simply execution...I use data to drive decisions, I set clear targets...I set the competitive benchmarks and I continuously raise the bar.” — May 2, 2013 Investor Day said by Ellen Kullman; “Relative to our five year, long-term rolling growth targets (7% rev growth, 12% earnings growth)..., we believe these goals are both appropriate and achievable. We fully endorse management’s plan to achieve them and are encouraged by progress against them.” — Letter to Trian from Alexander Cutler, DuPont’s Lead Director dated March 5, 2014; “Returning capital to shareholders has always been a priority at DuPont” — March 23, 2015 Letter from Alexander Cutler; “Trian...nominated...its own director candidates...to advance Trian’s high risk agenda to break up and add excessive debt to the Company” — March 23, 2015 Letter from Alexander Cutler."

"We were in advanced discussions which we severed because they are not always honest actors. We don't use them, but we use all their competitors. They are all mostly the same but they are detrimental to our business. They don't differentiate. They're trying to become the general diagnostic police of content on the internet. It's noble but a big bite. If you're trying to do that you have to be flexible. We didn't find DV flexible. Workability between the classification companies are different. We believe DV misclassified us in a way that didn't even classify us according to the legal definition of what we do. They said it was hard for their team to create a new category or move us. But they said they needed to get enough big buyers to override their classification, then they might consider it. There's a growing consortium of parties rising up against DV."

""In our case, we have a very different approach in that we have a handheld system. We have a burying approach. Most importantly, I think also this doesn't require presurgery CT. And the start-up times in the OR are actually very, very short. So altogether, we believe we have a fully differentiated solution here." — Smith & Nephew, Q3 2021 Conf Call. "This quarter, we began commercialization of our VELYS robotic-assisted solution for total knee procedures in the U.S." — Johnson & Johnson, Q2 2021 Conf Call. "We're looking at a 2022 launch for the robotics system." — Globus Medical, Q4 2020, Feb 17, 2021. "I mean it's a lot of units out in the marketplace in a pretty challenged environment. We're remembering again that we started for the most part with our first unit place at March 2019. So the demand is strong." — Zimmer Biomet, JPM Conf, Jan 10, 2022."

"FBR, July 2013: “CLB is one of the most attractive secular growth stories as its core competency of improving reservoir recovery fits in the sweet spot of our technology thesis.”; RBC, April 2014: “The company continues to establish itself as one of the best secular growth stories in the oilfield service sector with a suite of technologies geared toward the exploration and development of offshore and onshore unconventional oil plays with out-sized leverage to deep water field development.”; Morgan Stanley, September 2013: “Given our expectation for long-term secular growth, we believe the appropriate valuation methodology for CLB is discounted cash flow analysis. This differs from most of the stocks in our coverage universe, which we value on multiples (typically P/E and EV/EBITDA) because they tend to exhibit cyclical rather than secular growth.”"

"“You can only beat on the spinal cord so long before a refractory response happens. Look at drugs – ones that effect the nervous system lead to tolerance... The pathological changes that may have occurred in patients with Nevro’s HF10 therapy are being studied.”; “I believe, and a lot of other doctors believe, that you can only pound on the spinal cord so much. You’re seeing a shift now, where other companies are pulsing the energy... as a potential way to mitigate the tolerance that occurs in the nervous system.”; “I’m saying it’s just too much energy and you have to back off. Either the cells are down-regulating and can’t hear the noise anymore, or there’s an inflammatory response to high frequency and you are get cell formation that’s impeding the electrical signal.” — Ex-Nevro consultant/speaker and one of the most prominent KOL’s in the space"

""That's, yeah I mean like I said like in any acquisition Michael, you've got your gold, silver, bronze and you get a couple of pieces lead. Right? It's what you do with the couple of lead you make a bronze, silver and silver gold. The bulk of what we're getting is gold. There's some silver and bronze and a couple of pieces of lead. We've got to figure out what to do with the lead. But you have to take the good with the bad." — GFL Management (Call Transcript). "First, I think the majority of what we're getting is stuff that is coming off of the ADS platform. ADS operates on the same operating platform as us being an operating platform called trucks. And given our experience with trucks and the integration team we have, we are believed, we are very well positioned to integrate these assets very easily." — GFL Management (Call Transcript)."

""Refining performance certainly has significant room for improvement and is key to improving SOTP as well as to addressing investor concerns" — Citi Research, February 13, 2025; "We agree that PSX's midstream does not reflect full value...selling some midstream assets could unlock value." — Bank of America, February 14, 2025; "An activist shareholder, Elliott, can be a positive catalyst for shareholders." — Wells Fargo, November 29, 2023; "Most investors we talked to welcomed Elliott's involvement in PSX" — UBS, December 1, 2023; "[We believe] the letter will add a level of accountability for PSX to hit its cost targets." — T.D. Cowen, December 4, 2023; "Overall, we think Elliott's involvement should likely be an overall positive for PSX as an extra push towards the goals the company has already set out." — J.P. Morgan, November 29, 2023"

""The comparison to companies is good. And obviously, we are a commodity company. And in the commodity space, I mean, we like it to be dependent on aluminum. We love aluminum. But unfortunately, aluminum is not gold. But fortunately, aluminum also isn't plastic, right? So we are at a good spot here. But if you want to compare our performance, we believe you've really got it compared against the peers. And the peers that you see here are really our competitors. Those are the aluminum and alumina companies that exist around the world. So when you look at that, you actually do see that Alcoa has gained 9.6% on the total shareholder returns. Whereas our peers, the real peers have lost 7.5%. That I think is an important way to look at it, and I think it's the only way to look at it in a fair, fair fashion." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, May 6, 2011"

""We believe fedratinib represents a significant opportunity for patients and has the potential to be a billion-dollar blockbuster for Celgene." — Nadim Ahmed, Celgene President of Hematology and Oncology, January 2018; "In our view, the drug will be a more modest seller and we model $400mm peak sales as there are several JAK inhibitors entering late stage development for MF." — Cowen, February 2019; "We have not included any sales impact to Celgene from Juno’s JCAR017 or Impact’s fedratinib through 2022 at this time..." — Oppenheimer, May 2018; "Investors are likely to again focus on risks to fedratinib with mgt. delaying the filing to confirm with FDA the information communicated to Impact." — Morgan Stanley, May 2018; "Approval and launch of fedratinib in MF will likely only provide incremental growth." — Barclays, January 2018"

"“The gap with [PCC] is a bit of a different question. Because the biggest difference, to keep it simple here is, that PCC has the luxury of having a business of titanium and nickel, large structural cast. And they have almost a virtual monopoly in this business... And we will be working it and we would be gaining share in this, and we will continue to close the gap. But that's the biggest point there in terms of that PCC comparison.” — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, Arconic Q4 2016 Conference Call, January 31, 2017; “In the Investment Cast Products segment, our principal competitor is Howmet, a subsidiary of Alcoa Inc... We also believe Howmet has the financial and technical resources to produce structural castings as large and complex as those produced by us, should they decide to do so.” — Precision Castparts FY 2009 10-K, May 28, 2009"

"Importantly, we'll have strong cash flow generation as a result of this transaction, about $1 billion in operating cash flow in the second year and accelerating, which means we can quickly de-lever from approximately 5 times to less than 3 times by the end of the second full year post-close... — CEO Jeff Simmons on Acquisition of Bayer by Elanco 8/20/2019; The global diversified strength of the combined business will generate enough cash flow for us to bring our leverage below 3 times adjusted EBITDA by the end of 2022. We realized the timing of our deleveraging is different than what we planned at the IPO by approximately two years. But we believe this delay is warranted by the compelling value proposition that our combined focused animal health company creates. — CFO Todd Young on Acquisition of Bayer by Elanco 8/20/2019"

""It is time for shareholders' voices to be heard, for accountability to be introduced in the Taubman Centers boardroom, and for a clear message to be sent to the Taubman family that shareholders will no longer tolerate abysmal corporate governance, misguided operations, lavish developments and inferior total returns," said Land and Buildings Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Jonathan Litt. "Taubman continues to deliver suboptimal value for shareholders with 57% stock underperformance versus Class A Mall Peers over the last five years. We believe our two independent and highly-qualified director nominees, Charles Elson and myself, will bring the fresh perspectives and objectivity that we believe is currently lacking on the Board and can help reverse this trend of value destruction." — Jonathan Litt, Land and Buildings"

"“If we get some robust economic growth around the world, we're going to see crude prices, Brent prices, right back at 150.” — January 31, 2013 Q4 2012 CLB earnings call. “So our outlook is that Brent stays north of $100, and for 2014 going forward, spare capacity becomes less and less.” — January 30, 2015 Q4 2014 CLB earnings call. “We believe crude oil markets will balance early in 2015 with crude oil prices strengthening to earlier 2014 levels.” — October 23, 2014 Q3 2014 CLB earnings call. “Don't think [sub-40 WTI] is a distinct possibility”; “I think we will see WTI somewhere between $70 and $80 by year-end... We are bottoming right now on crude oil prices” — July 28, 2015 David Demshur interview on Mad Money. “Once oil breaks through $50, it will go to $60-range” — July 20, 2016 David Demshur interview on Mad Money."

"“Substantial long-term operating leverage: Longer term, our hypothetical margin expansion analysis shows the potential for a significant ramp in pro forma operating margins from 12% currently to 30-40%, in theory, as revenues grow to scale and sales and marketing (S&M) costs normalize. We strongly believe that the SaaS business model can ultimately achieve a margin structure similar to that of traditional on-premise software businesses—a view that we believe is underappreciated by the Street.” — Nomura, Aug 2012; “Performing the same analysis for Ultimate Software Group, with its current renewal margins between 48% and 50% over the last four years, this would imply long-run, fully- scaled potential operating margins in the low-30% range (Ultimate’s non-GAAP operating margins today are ~20%).” — Goldman Sachs, July 2017"

"We believe that the main issue driving this softer cycle in cosmetics is that the newness and innovation that have been the focus of most brands this year has just not driven the kind of incremental growth we've enjoyed for some period of time. Over the past several years, we've seen strong growth in cosmetics driven by new rituals and application techniques, like contouring and brow styling, and innovative new product formats like liquid lip, palettes and minis. This innovation resulted in new makeup routines requiring new products which drove strong incremental growth. The most recent cycle of innovation has just not driven those behaviors resulting in a soft cycle for the cosmetics category in the U.S. as innovation and newness price the market has not driven the expected growth. — ULTA CEO Q2 2019 Conf Call"

""Well, I mean, I think everybody is waiting to see what the -- trying to get some quantification around what they think the impact will be. It's no doubt, having some sort of an impact." — Ingredion (Feb 3, 2026); "On GLP-1, no doubt it's changing the way people eat. And as we talked about in our capital markets event a couple of months ago, we see that as an opportunity for reformulation over time because of the need to provide more nutritionally balanced and dense food for those on GLP-1 that need to provide healthy alternatives when they come off the drug." — Tate & Lyle (Oct 1, 2025); "One is GLP-1. I know there's been a lot of talk about it. We believe that GLP-1 is and will be the most powerful force impacting food and beverage consumption, not only in the U.S. but around the world." — IFF (Feb 19, 2026)"

""The disclosure regarding recently completed acquisitions and adjusted financial information in respect of such acquisitions in this MD&A is based on information provided to the Company by the relevant sellers. Although the Company conducts what it believes to be a sufficient level of investigation in connection with acquisitions, an unavoidable level of risk remains regarding the accuracy and completeness of the information provided to the Company by the relevant sellers. The Company has not independently verified the accuracy or completeness of such information, and there may be events which may have occurred with respect to the acquired businesses or which may affect the completeness or accuracy of the information provided by the relevant sellers which are unknown to the Company." — Q3 2021 MD&A, p. 29"

"We strongly believe that we are in a great position to establish a first-mover advantage to roll out a product that performs well on a pizza, one that could serve as a substitute for cheese made from dairy for those consumers that prefer a nondairy alternative, a product that tastes and performs like cheese, with the ultimate goal of offering a product that delivers on nutritional qualities as well. The category today is very, very small, but the potential we feel is tremendous. Although we are playing in the plant-based beverage space, that part of the business has become saturated with a large number of players, brands and looks to become largely commoditized. Nondairy cheese, on the other hand, has relatively few players and is a space we feel we can be successful in. — COO Beckmann, Q3 2021 Conf Call"

""Right now we just can’t [get behind the Company] because we’re again disdained and there’s very little concern right now at the C-suite, you know, outside of their jobs. There’s not a concern for the employees. And that’s something we can never forget and really won’t." — SWAPA Leadership, The SWAPA Number Podcast (July 1); "When I started at Southwest in 1997, it was ‘us against the world!’ Now it’s every man for himself as our famous culture is dying a slow, painful death. I believe it can be fixed, and I’m hoping you and your group can make it happen." — Former Employee; "Without any doubt I agree that a new leadership team is needed." — Current Employee; "[Bob Jordan] has driven the airline into the ground. Thank you for taking a bold stance and insisting on making some changes." — Former Employee"

"“Of our net sales, we believe that 73% of our business or our cost structure is highly variable. Our royalties that we pay distributors, about 36% of sales. Our product costs, 21%, and distributor facing spending, which is sort of sacrosanct. This is what Des mentioned earlier, and Michael. This is the last area that we want to touch as it relates to trying to leverage our margins. In fact, if anything, what we try to do is over-invest in this area because we do believe that complementing our royalty expense with very prudent incentives and promotion can actually drive incremental ROI on the spending. So, when we look at our essentially fixed overhead, and fixed is relative depending on what time horizon, we look at 12% of our cost structure being essentially fixed.” — Rich Goudis, CFO, Herbalife"

"“We continue to be focused on current trends, adding inspirational and user-generated content and expanding into new categories by recently extending our outdoor category with pool options.” — Lang Q1’23 May 4, 2023; “The discretionary components of our business, which are the most affected by general economic conditions, have been challenged by cautious consumer spending on big ticket items like swimming pools and outdoor living projects resulting in sales of building materials declining 11% for the year compared to the same period in 2023.” — Pool Corp June 25, 2024; “We now believe that new pool units could be down 15% to 20% in 2024, and remodeling activity for 2024 may be down as much as 15% compared to our previous estimate of flat to down 10% compared to 2023.” — Pool Corp June 25, 2024"

""Chronic pain is such a unique and idiosyncratic thing that for a company to claim that this one method will work and be good for everyone - really, I'm surprised that Nevro was able to essentially fool the world. I'm not a believer that 10kHz is so much better than 1 or 3kHz. High frequency is just sort of keeping them afloat, and if they had not done this, the company would not have survived. But they had to do this because they realized that their initial predictions, their initial claims were just simply not true." — High volume implanter/KOL and Nevro user; "You don't need 10kHz like they claim. Once you reach 2-3kHz it works better than old systems which had 3-500Hz. You don't need the magic 10kz high frequency. Clinically, less is ok and you don't need Nevro" — High volume implanter/KOL"

"“These independent directors agreed to join our board, because they believe in our outstanding plan, and they recognize that our plan is the right plan for all of our shareholders.” “We have had this strategic transformation, as my remarks noted, underway, really going back...since I became Chairman...In fact, Elliott got on the train after it really left the station...This is a culmination of a multi year strategy...” — John Hess, March 4th 2013(1); “While this letter presents Elliott’s perspectives, Shareholder Nominees will form their own, independent views on the Company, its assets, and its strategy. These five accomplished individuals bring deep knowledge and experience in areas that are severely lacking in the existing board.” — Elliott Letter to Shareholders, January 29th 2013(2)"

"“For very long periods of time, I think that Fannie and Freddie have been well run without creating risk to the government, as well as they’ve played an important role...I believe these are very important entities to provide the necessary liquidity for housing finance and what I’ve committed to is that I will work with both of the Democrats and Republicans. What I’ve said and I believe, we need housing finance reform, so we shouldn’t just leave Fannie and Freddie as is for the next 4 or 8 years under government control, without a fix. I believe we can find a bipartisan fix for these so on the one hand we don’t end up with a giant bailout, on the other hand that we don’t run the risk of completely limiting housing finance.” — Steve Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary nominee, on Jan. 19, 2017"

"“For very long periods of time, I think that Fannie and Freddie have been well run without creating risk to the government, as well as they’ve played an important role...I believe these are very important entities to provide the necessary liquidity for housing finance and what I’ve committed to is that I will work with both of the Democrats and Republicans. What I’ve said and I believe, we need housing finance reform, so we shouldn’t just leave Fannie and Freddie as is for the next 4 or 8 years under government control, without a fix. I believe we can find a bipartisan fix for these so on the one hand we don’t end up with a giant bailout, on the other hand that we don’t run the risk of completely limiting housing finance.” — Steve Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary nominee, on Jan. 19, 2017"