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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 1801–1860 of 37,061
quote nominee bio

""Campaigners for gender equality in the boardroom hailed [the appointment of Patrice Merrin to the board of Glencore] as a ‘landmark’ moment for British business...." — The Daily Mail, June 26, 2014; "'She’s very, very strong on the corporate governance side of things and the market-facing aspects,' Mick McMullen, chief executive officer of Stillwater Mining, said in a phone interview from Billings, Montana, where Stillwater is based. 'There’s some big names on that board and working within the confines of that will be an interesting challenge, or an opportunity.'" — Bloomberg, July 18, 2014"

Arconic Inc. · ARNC Elliott Management · p. 284
quote villain critique

""Expected average member count for the fourth quarter to 4.6 million." -- Mark Livingston, 3Q22 Transcript; "We continued that momentum and secured a record 105 new client commitments during the selling season representing an additional 1.2 million covered lives."; "Weighted average covered lives increased by more than 200,000 [in 3Q22] driven by the launch of nine new clients at various points during the quarter." -- Mark Livingston, 3Q22 Transcript; "We expect to be managing fertility benefits for 5.4 million people and approximately 370 companies in 2023" -- Peter Anevski, 3Q22 Transcript"

Progyny, Inc. · PGNY Spruce Point Capital · p. 33
quote villain critique

"In FY09 TFS sold an investment of 350 ha to the first non MIS wholesale investor (not connected to EIG). At the time, TFS set extended payment terms, with payment due by April 30, 2010. The extended payment terms were part of an introductory offer to the first client of this new product initiative for TFS and were designed to align payment with the planting of the investment during the April to June planting season. The investor concerned has not met the April deadline for payment of all the funds but TFS is confident that full payment will be made by 30 June 2010. — TFS Corporate Disclosure"

Quintis Limited · QIN Viceroy Research · p. 12
quote villain critique

"“if you care about production throughput, you have to use a 213nm light source.” — Longtime ex-TSMC procurement executive who introduced Lasertec inspection tools into TSMC; “TSMC just wants to do quite frequent monitoring...a quick check...the best resolution is not necessary.” — Longtime ex-TSMC procurement executive who introduced Lasertec inspection tools into TSMC; “Yes. Because of the throughput. TSMC will not consider the A300 or A150 for production. They will only exist in the EPO mask house.” — Longtime ex-TSMC procurement executive who introduced Lasertec inspection tools into TSMC"

Lasertec Corporation · 6920 Scorpion Capital · p. 222
quote ceo quote

"While there was a lot to digest, all-in we learned little that altered our view of the fundamental trajectory of the business or value of the stock. — Goldman Sachs; One need look no further than [fiscal 4q18] performance to understand that change is long overdue. — Consumer Edge; What we found most interesting... was Interim CEO Keith McLoughlin's point-by-point assessment of what had gone wrong at CPB. Not only did this appraisal destroy ex-CEO Denise Morrison's legacy but it also served as a scathing critique of a board that let the company drift during the Morrison era. — Gordon Haskett"

Campbell Soup Company · CPB Third Point · p. 32
quote villain critique

"At year-end 2019, we had cash and cash equivalents of $253.7 million held in accounts at third-party financial institutions. Our cash balances are held in numerous locations throughout the world. At year-end 2019, the majority of our cash and cash equivalents was held by our foreign subsidiaries. However, if we were to repatriate incremental foreign earnings and profits, we could be subject to cash payments of withholding taxes imposed by foreign tax authorities and additional U.S. taxes due to the impact of foreign currency movements related to such earnings and profits. — 2019 10-K, p. 13"

Avery Dennison Corporation · AVY Spruce Point Capital · p. 40
quote villain critique

""Right now I can't believe that this bid is true and I haven't received either from the independent financial review or city staff enough reassurance that I should trust this number," said Councillor Gord Perks. "If they can't deliver on price, we are going to find ourselves two or three years from now with them holding a gun to our heads because we will have laid off our staff, sold our trucks and will be completely dependent on them," he said. "I have particular concerns with this contract because it is so far off the mark that the rest of the marketplace has set." — Councillor Gord Perks"

GFL Environmental Inc. · GFL Spruce Point Capital · p. 36
quote ceo quote

"We believe that total organic revenue is an important measure because it excludes the impact of the following items: foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, acquisitions and divestitures, and fuel surcharges. Specifically, our total organic revenue reflects adjustments to (i) exclude revenue from our North American truckload unit, which was sold in October 2016, (ii) exclude the estimated revenue attributable to fuel, and (iii) apply a constant foreign exchange rate to both periods (based on average rates during the monthly periods). — XPO Proxy Statement, Annex A, filed April 18, 2018"

XPO Logistics, Inc. · XPO Spruce Point Capital · p. 32
quote ceo quote

""Just in Workforce Now...I would say from a margin perspective since it's leveraging our existing SaaS applications and leveraging our existing auto payback and infrastructure, margins are equivalent or slightly higher than core traditional payroll." — Carlos A. Rodriguez, President, Small Business; "...On the margin side, we are seeing as I think, Gary, mentioned today fewer service calls and I think that would lead one to believe that we would have margin expansion as a result of the RUN product eventually being rolled out fully..." — Campbell B. Langdon, President, Major Account Division"

quote villain critique

"“Some of the other things that are notable about QuantumScape, and frankly, the most glaring one is the size of the cell. It's a single-layer cell, and when people refer to single-layer cells in the industry, they usually talk about it as a double-sided cathode... without a doubt, if there's one takeaway, it's why after all the capital that has been invested, why are they only showing single-layer data?” — Sold state expert; “You've got a single-layer cell, and if I was going to invest in this as a venture investor, I would want to see an awful lot more data than this.” — Solid state expert"

QuantumScape · QS Scorpion Capital · p. 122
quote villain critique

"“Key IonQ partner, name redacted took redacted aside and said your company is fraudulent. There are a lot of people in the industry that think it’s fraudulent, that the representation of the 32 [qubit machine] is fraudulent. This is science. So, when you make a scientific claim, you back it with a scientific paper. And there are no scientific papers really coming out backing their claim. So, people don’t like that, and then people would call and say I want to use the 32-qubit machine and they get the runaround. Oh, it’s in a test, or it’s this. So, nobody’s ever seen it.” — Former executive"

IonQ Inc. · IONQ Scorpion Capital · p. 56
quote ceo quote

""We are exercising caution around the industry's recent acceleration of the direct selling or door-to-door sales channels through independent sales dealers." — Lynn Michelle Jurich, CEO of Sunrun, Q4 2019 Earnings Call. "I would suspect that our direct will take share versus the pre-COVID for all those reasons that the market leaders, I think, will take share generally." — Lynn Michelle Jurich, CEO of Sunrun, Q1 2020 Earnings Call. "we expect those channels to continue to grow faster than our direct-to-home and dealer channels" — David H. Bywater, CEO of Vivint Solar, Q4 2019 Earnings Call."

Sunnova Energy International Inc. · NOVA Spruce Point Capital · p. 45
quote ceo quote

"“At Kao, we conduct Life Value Solution marketing aimed at providing benefit for consumers’ Life Value” — Kao Management. “We are also considering a system, ‘One Team and My Dream’” — Kao Management. “as I explained using the key words, Next Innovation... we will drastically shift the values of sanitary products through Next Innovation in the future.” — Kao Management. “Reborn Kao is Kao’s core business... we are taking a chance on Another Kao... Another Kao values delivering products and services only to those to whom products and services should be delivered sincerely. “ — Kao Management."

Kao Corporation · 4452.JP Oasis Management · p. 40
quote ceo quote

""But we've been able to branch out and the demand, I think, on the retail side has really been energizing for all of us, whether it be CVS or Walgreens or Walmart or GMC, Bed Bath & Beyond, Vitamin Shoppe. I mean there's just an incredible demand for the products and those retailers are coming to us with an energy that I think is very rare." — CEO Dudum on Q4 2021 Earnings Call; "As we have previously communicated, we expect revenue growth in our wholesale channel to moderate as we now have a presence in the majority of top retailers across the country." — CEO Dudum on Q4 2022 Earnings Call"

Hims & Hers Health, Inc. · HIMS Spruce Point Capital · p. 79
quote executive summary

""...because when OEM's get into this space, which they are trying to, and they'll be very efficient if they want to just be aggressive with that to strike away these turnkey providers on larger key accounts and then just have the cake for themselves. It's going to hurt revenues unless companies like Limbach pivot towards owning any IP" — Industry Expert. "...I mean I think the service business, obviously -- these are very sophisticated systems. So think of it as, the more sophisticated the system, the more aptitude there is for the OEM to do the service work" — Trane Technologies executive."

Limbach Holdings, Inc. · LMB Spruce Point Capital · p. 17
quote other

""What I observe at Estelle is reminiscent of the features of the Donlin Creek deposit, which now is known to contain more than 30 million ounces of gold. The abundance of high grade veins over a broad area, the presence of hydrothernal breccias, quartz stockwork veining, porphyritic intrusive rocks and widespread hydrothermal alteration are all indicators of a large scale deposit." — Philip St. George, Millrock Vice-President of Exploration. "ITH's portfolio rationalization has resulted in a great opportunity for Millrock. We plan on drilling in July." — Gregory Beischer, Company President."

Nova Minerals Limited · NVA Spruce Point Capital · p. 14
quote villain critique

"“The Ushio light source is DPP. Discharge produced plasma. Think of the old days with a spark plug in a car with a gap where you apply voltage and you have a spark. Now imagine tin in the middle of the spark and using electrical energy to light the tin and get plasma. It's not a well controlled process. That's why people can't harness energy from lightning - it's uncontrolled. It was painful but we would get some light. If you choose a bad technology you just can't get there. DPP has inherent issues.” — One of Intel's most senior and longtime engineers with leadership responsibility for EUV"

Lasertec Corporation · 6920 Scorpion Capital · p. 196
quote ceo quote

"Before we turn the call over to your questions, I'd like to share a couple of executive appointments we've just made, adding even further strength to Xylem's leadership bench. Earlier, I referred to our strategy of extending digital capabilities across Xylem's product, solutions and services portfolio. We've just taken an important step in accelerating that process, appointing Xylem's first Chief Digital Officer. Sai Allavarpu joined our senior leadership team last week, bringing extensive experience of growing digital businesses in the industrial sector. — CEO Decker, Q3'2022, Nov 1, 2022"

Xylem Inc. · XYL Spruce Point Capital · p. 22
quote villain critique

"Disruption in supplies of coal produced by third parties could impair our ability to fill customers' orders, increase our costs or reduce revenues earned through our Trading and Logistics business. Furthermore, we purchase a substantial portion of this coal from one source. Disruption in our supply of purchased coal could impair our ability to fill our customers' orders or require us to pay higher prices to obtain the required coal from other sources. Any increase in the prices we pay for purchased coal could increase our costs and therefore lower our earning — Pre-IPO S-1 Filing, May 2017"

Alpha Metallurgical Resources, Inc. · AMR Spruce Point Capital · p. 29
quote ceo quote

""Think of the soon-to-retire office worker. She saved because she wanted enough money to retire. Given the terrible returns on savings ... the prospect of continuing low interest rates might make her put even more money aside. Indeed ... the existence of savers who have suffered a loss of savings and have end-of-working-life savings objectives can imply that lower real interest rates are contractionary – savers put more money aside as interest rates fall in order to meet the savings they think they will need when they retire." — Raghuram Rajan, Lecture delivered at the BIS on June 23, 2013"

AerCap Holdings · AER Greenlight Capital · p. 12
quote villain critique

"Muddy Waters does not understand our business or its operating environment. Because bots and fake users are now so prevalent throughout the internet environment in China, we hire and train specialists in bot operations as a matter of quality control. We must build and run these large-scale bot networks internally against our own system to make sure we can effectively block them. We do this to maintain the integrity of the livestreaming classroom and learning environment and provide a safe, “bot free” space where students can learn. — Hypothetical management response drafted by Muddy Waters"

GSX Techedu · GSX Muddy Waters · p. 6
quote villain critique

"“I think it’s something like $400k a year or something outrageous…I imagine quite a lot of my patients, in fact, all of them are probably over 100 kilos. And that probably pushes me starting, starting about 150…of course, it bothers me. It makes me mad, maybe even furious, about these outrageous costs. Because ultimately, this degree of appetite suppression could be readily achieved with sedating medications like Haldol and other antipsychotics, for example, which have their own diabetogenic risk for the cost of pennies.” — Endocrinologist with academic and community hospital affiliations."

Soleno Therapeutics · SLNO Scorpion Capital · p. 341
quote ceo quote

"I don't know that it's going to grow much...compared to the percentage of the market it already had; any monumental growth that it was going to make probably would have happened by now...it's probably just going to keep doing kind of what it's been doing. — Neurologist who is a speaker for Harmony and one of their highest volume prescribers. My last start on Wakix was probably late last year or early this year. I can't recall; it's been a while, and we're at the end of this year. It's been almost a year, I have not started anyone. — Neurologist and professor at a large academic institution"

Harmony Biosciences Holdings · HRMY Scorpion Capital · p. 365
quote ceo quote

"Approximately half of the revenue increase for 2021 is coming from acquisitions, and approximately half of the revenue increase comes from organic growth in fiscal year 2021. — ROAD Guidance (2021). Our fiscal year-over-year revenue growth of 16% consisted of approximately one-third organic growth and two-thirds acquisitive growth. — ROAD Actual (2021). This also assumes on the top line a 50-50 split between organic and acquisitive revenue. — ROAD Guidance (2024). The mix of our total revenue growth for the year was 7% organic revenue and 10% from recent acquisitions. — ROAD Actual (2024)."

Construction Partners, Inc. · ROAD Spruce Point Capital · p. 14
quote ceo quote

"Disney was dealt a tough hand by the pandemic, yet with Bob [Chapek] at the helm, our businesses—from parks to streaming—not only weathered the storm, but emerged in a position of strength. In this important time of growth and transformation, the Board is committed to keeping Disney on the successful path it is on today, and Bob’s leadership is key to achieving that goal. Bob [Chapek] is the right leader at the right time for The Walt Disney Company, and the Board has full confidence in him and his leadership team. — Susan Arnold, The Walt Disney Company – Chair of the Board, June 28, 2022"

The Walt Disney Company · DIS Trian Partners · p. 27
quote villain critique

"During fiscal year 2022, the Company announced that it had begun to shift enterprise customers to contracts billed annually, and that it had assumed fiscal 2023 enterprise contracts would be billed annually. The Company subsequently determined, however, to pursue multiyear upfront contracts with enterprise customers to help meet its fiscal year 2023 free cash flow goal. Upfront billings of enterprise customers in fiscal year 2023 substantially exceeded historical levels, helping the Company to meet its lowered annual free cash flow target. — Autodesk Audit Committee Investigation Findings"

Autodesk, Inc. · ADSK Starboard Value · p. 75
quote villain critique

""[if] people are being diagnosed incorrectly, and if that led to a death or if that led to somebody getting treated incorrectly, this is a very serious 483. They could actually get a consent decree, and FDA could walk in and shut them down...it is apparent that it’s systemic..." "...to be honest, this would really scare me because they're on the radar of the DOJ. They've kind of upset them...They've got a mess on their hands...I would truly run away. I wouldn't touch that company with a 10-foot pole." — Spruce Point Interview with Medical Device Regulatory Compliance Consultant, June 2025"

iRhythm Technologies, Inc. · IRTC Spruce Point Capital · p. 13
quote villain critique

""I think the $141 million judgment from the New York AG against TurboTax, although probably not widely in most consumers' awareness. I think regulators view TurboTax as sort of a very questionable organization, not consumer-friendly, predatory...And so that wasn't always the case. And so there was always friction between the IRS and TurboTax. But now I think there's certainly amongst Democratic lawmakers. TurboTax is sort of persona non grata and like, hey, you're taking advantage of low-income people. You're sort of like a payday loan kind of place." — Former VP at Intuit, Tegus, 8/24/23"

Intuit Inc. · INTU Spruce Point Capital · p. 85
quote ceo quote

"“And on MAKO, I appreciate that you're not going to be breaking out sales. Can you tell us how you'll be accounting for MAKO sales moving forward?” — Analyst Bernstein, Q4 2013 Conf Call. “The capital and any related service will be in our other line along with sports medicine, bone cement and the other products in that.” — IR Owen, Q4 2013 Conf Call. “But keep in mind, (other ortho) includes bone cement, it includes revenue associated with the robots installed and it includes revenue associated with the upgrades, and as well as some revenue associated with SPS.” — CEO Lobo, Q1 2017 Call."

Stryker Corp. · SYK Spruce Point Capital · p. 130
quote villain critique

"During fiscal year 2022, the Company announced that it had begun to shift enterprise customers to contracts billed annually, and that it had assumed fiscal 2023 enterprise contracts would be billed annually. The Company subsequently determined, however, to pursue multiyear upfront contracts with enterprise customers to help meet its fiscal year 2023 free cash flow goal. Upfront billings of enterprise customers in fiscal year 2023 substantially exceeded historical levels, helping the Company to meet its lowered annual free cash flow target. — Autodesk Audit Committee Investigation Findings"

Autodesk, Inc. · ADSK Starboard Value · p. 75
quote villain critique

"“we haven’t started Vykat yet we are seeing quite a few parents comment about edema. Hyperglycemia, behavioral issues, and an INCREASE in hyperphagia” — Facebook user, Vykat for PWS: Evidence, Experience & Encouragement group. “it sounds like a lot of people are experiencing an increase in behavioral issues while starting the meds” — Facebook user, Vykat discussion group. “we’re on week 3 and I’m convinced it’s the medicine, only because of the severity/difference in behaviors…behaviors we’ve experienced mildly before seem to extremely exaggerated” — Facebook user, Vykat discussion group."

Soleno Therapeutics · SLNO Scorpion Capital · p. 163
quote ceo quote

"“I don’t really know why a drug that’s targeted at children would ever be a tablet because it’s a nightmare...I don’t know they’ve picked a tablet over a suspension...they say it’s because you need to give the suspension two to three times...they’re referring to what we do in hyperinsulinism which is a very different condition...because we want the sugars to be kept within a certain range, whereas in Prader-Willi Syndrome, managing the hyperphagia, it doesn’t need to be done in that similar way...so I don’t know why they picked that tablet.” — Trial investigator, pediatric endocrinologist"

Soleno Therapeutics · SLNO Scorpion Capital · p. 327
quote villain critique

"During the year ended 31 March 2014, a PRC subsidiary obtained the qualification of being a high technology enterprise for a consecutive three years from year 2012 to 2014. With such qualification, the subsidiary is approved to enjoy the preferential tax rate of 15% (subject to annual review by PRC tax authority) for its profits earned from July 2012 to December 2014, resulting in an overprovision of income tax expense amounted to HK$13,899,000, credited to the consolidated statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income for the year ended 31 March 2016. — MWH 2017 AR, p. 105."

Man Wah Holdings · 1999.HK Muddy Waters · p. 13
quote ceo quote

""It was a very tiny, tiny afterthought. Kind of 'what will we do one day once we figure out the BPH'? And it was definitely something, oh, 'we might do that next', but while I was still there, we still needed to fix the BPH first..." — Former Procept Manager, Nov 2024. "I think overall it's kind of going to be a niche area... It's a really crowded space here. There are tons of other minimally invasive procedures that are indicated for prostate cancer. So it would be hard for me to think that [Aquablation] is going to make a huge dent in the market" — Private Practice Urologist, Dec 2024."

PROCEPT BioRobotics Corporation · PRCT Spruce Point Capital · p. 71
quote other

""Edge computing will be a 'huge energy saver.'" — Jillian Kaplan, the head of global 5G at Dell; "Edge AI—or AI at the network's edge—may be the most important development for the future of business and AI symbiosis." — Aurangzeb Khan, Senior Vice President, Intelligent Vision Systems at GN Jabra; "The whole industry is figuring out how to trim these [AI] models to fit at the edge without loss of accuracy," — Sameer Vuyyuru, AWS head of worldwide telecommunications business development; "75% of data compute is moving to the edge," — Kirk Skaugen, head of Lenovo's infrastructure business."

Edgio, Inc. · EGIO Citron Research · p. 2
quote ceo quote

""Well, they [Elliott] ignore that we had a world economic crisis that hit the commodity markets particularly heavy. Commodity prices sank to one third, from mid-2008 to early-2009. We came to almost not having the Company anymore, and we got in gear and saved it. It came down – the stock price came down to five dollars. Five dollars in the early 2009. To choose a point in you know, when the metal prices were at the absolute high, when the world was believing in the global commodity boom, you know, that’s a very convenient and totally unfair point." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, February 1, 2017"

Arconic Inc. · ARNC Elliott Management · p. 50
quote villain critique

"We permitted the distributors to use the Chinese characters “安踏” (ANTA) as part of their corporate name to reflect the association of distributors with us which we considered would facilitate the development of the new markets by such distributors in view of our brand promotion. Now that the ANTA sales network is established in those markets, the relevant entities have been or are in the course of being de-registered or have ceased operation pending liquidation and the replacement entities no longer have the Chinese characters “安踏” (ANTA) in their corporate name. — ANTA Prospectus, p. 87"

quote villain critique

"“where I haven't seen them get much traction is selling their product into...quality controlled places like pharma”; “a lot of them are the startup biotech's in the Bay Area, less so the Amgen's and GSK's.” ... “That's correct. Generally, in pharma, if you order 100 genes, you better deliver them 100 genes. You can't turn around after three or four weeks and say, here is 90. Good luck getting the rest of the 10. That's not going to last long. That will be a disaster for a pharma company. Emily's business was academic.” — Longtime executive in Twist's space; ex-founder of a key competitor"

Twist Bioscience · TWST Scorpion Capital · p. 178
quote ceo quote

""Based in Los Angeles, Vubiquity is a provider of premium content services and technology solutions, which upon closing, we expect will contribute annualized revenue of approximately $100 million for Amdocs." — Eli Gelman, President and CEO, Amdocs; "During Q1, to support our digital strategy, we acquired projekt202... the revenue contribution for the quarter was immaterial." — Tamar Rapaport-Dagim, CFO, Amdocs; "And in terms of the numbers, [UXP is] less material. So, that's why we didn't refer to it. It's relatively a small company at this stage..." — Tamar Rapaport-Dagim, CFO, Amdocs."

Amdocs Limited · DOX Spruce Point Capital · p. 127
quote ceo quote

""If you take the SG&A for this year, Mike, we're probably -- we're around 24% to 25% on remainco with all of the costs on the SG&A, okay? We're targeting in '18 to get that number on a run rate basis down to 22% to 23%." — Greg Poling, President & CEO, May 2017; "We're going to target a couple of points of margin improvement over the timeframe you're talking about across the business. But it really is going to be driven on creating value, we're either going to increase the quality or take the labor cost or production cost out of these products..." — Greg Poling, President & CEO, May 2016"

GCP Applied Technologies · GCP Starboard Value · p. 41
quote villain critique

""UCSF received the Lightning, which was our more R&D-focused, smaller, less automated platform, which had been designed specifically for academic labs. They were one of our earlier adopters, and the plan was to have projects and get publications and data out. The platform didn't really get used a lot. It was used quite a lot in the first couple of months but as soon as we reduced the amount of support that we were giving, they never really became let's say autonomous. We didn't really produce the amount of data that we hoped was going to be enough for publication." — Former BLI scientist"

Berkeley Lights · BLI Scorpion Capital · p. 111
quote ceo quote

"“We've always looked at that buyback as we've executed as an opportunistic program. And if you go back over the course of the last 10 years, we are not consistent from quarter-to-quarter and that's by design. We look at a bunch of different things. We look at the performance of the business, the investment needs of the business. We look at M&A opportunities on the horizon. We look at things like upcoming dividends and we have a consistent history of not being consistent in the way that we execute on that buyback program. And I'm not sure I look into anything more than that.” — Cintas CFO"

Cintas Corp. · CTAS Spruce Point Capital · p. 50
quote villain critique

"In July 2017, the Company completed a registered underwritten offering of 11 million shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $60.50 per share, plus up to an additional 1.65 million shares of its common stock pursuant to an option granted to the underwriters to purchase additional shares of the Company's common stock directly from the Company (the “Offering”). Of the 11 million shares of common stock, 5 million shares were offered directly by the Company and 6 million shares were offered in connection with forward sale agreements (the “Forward Sale Agreements”) — XPO 8-K"

XPO Logistics, Inc. · XPO Spruce Point Capital · p. 21
quote villain critique

"“If you look at the process, the process is like a jet ink dot matrix printer. It’s the same thing. It has four heads, and they use piezoelectric crystal to spit out these droplets containing the base pair, A, T, G, and C. So, you have four heads, one has A, one has T, one has G, and one has C. The customer will order an oligonucleotide gene sequence of 1000 pairs. This thing goes through multiple times where it spits out a little bubble of adenosine to put them in the right place. There’s tons of room for error.” — Longtime oligonucleotide manufacturing expert and executive; ex-Agilent"

Twist Bioscience · TWST Scorpion Capital · p. 89
quote ceo quote

"Look, we love Amex. We think having a credit card partner is important. It's been a valuable brand awareness and distribution for us. But our business has scaled significantly since 2019. And as we've talked about, the gap between the wholesale and the retail price has widened to a fairly significant level. And we believe it depresses our bookings and EBITDA, obviously benefits our working capital. The wholesale price is so low relative to the $199 retail. Look, we believe the renewal rates at full price would be larger than the percentage discount rate. — Q4 2024 CFO Commentary On AMEX"

Clear Secure, Inc. · YOU Spruce Point Capital · p. 32
quote villain critique

"“I could tell you seven surgeons who would be, should be excluded from surgery for life because they're very, very brutal - I mean, they have terrible outcomes. They kill more patients than they save, and they still go on to jump around the country at various hospitals. It happens a lot. She was one of the procurement team surgeons, and I heard specifically about her from this friend who was telling me about the aorta, and he's like, and they hired your favorite person - and I couldn't believe it. Nobody in their right mind would hire her.” — Former executive in a key reimbursement role"

TransMedics Group Inc · TMDX Scorpion Capital · p. 195
quote villain critique

"“they will struggle...extremely hard to compete with KLA...I don’t think Lasertec can pull it out in EUV [versus KLA]” and “they will disappear in five years” if they don’t “re-engineer the tool [with] a simple source.” — Former KLA executive in a leadership role in their EUV mask inspection group. “People would love to buy from KLA. There is no question about that. If KLA comes out with a product, they will get the orders, that’s for sure.” — Leading figure in the development of Cymer/ASML’s EUV light source; headed KLA’s EUV source effort; one of the top scientist/experts in the field"

Lasertec Corporation · 6920 Scorpion Capital · p. 276
quote villain critique

""As data becomes increasingly important to power sportsbooks and live broadcasts, providers like Genius Sports are in an arms race to acquire faster, more reliable, proprietary feeds." — Sportico (May 6, 2021); "Sportradar is working on acquiring an undisclosed business in a deal valued as much as $475 million..." — S&P Ratings (via Sportico, October 14, 2020); "Sportradar, the world's leading provider of sports data intelligence and sport entertainment solutions, today announces that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Synergy Sports..." — Sportradar (March 22, 2021)"

Genius Sports Limited · GENI Spruce Point Capital · p. 30
quote villain critique

"“Milton Friedman’s theory that a company is owned by shareholders – big and small, activist or not – is a ‘legal fiction…What a shareholder really owns is stock, which is a contractual agreement between the company and that shareholder.’” — Carl Bass, September 2018; “If you have conviction about running the company, buy it and you run it…This idea that you're an itinerant owner — that would be like getting a room at the Motel 6 and then telling them they have to redecorate everything, and then the next day I leave. It's a crazy notion that we've gotten to.” — Carl Bass, September 2018"

Box, Inc. · BOX Starboard Value · p. 126
quote ceo quote

""So, it's a TURP. It is no different... I think 15 to 20% bounce back to the ER is too high... So I see no advantage to sending them home." — Spruce Point Interview with Major Hospital Urologist, Nov 2024. "...we looked at our first 150 [Aquablation procedures]. It was super comparable to a TURP... All are identical to a TURP... So I think it's slightly more recovery than a TURP." — Spruce Point Interview with Major Hospital Urologist, Nov 2024. "...there's no superior motive for using it from a clinical standpoint." — Spruce Point Interview with Community Hospital Urologist, Nov 2024."

PROCEPT BioRobotics Corporation · PRCT Spruce Point Capital · p. 29
quote ceo quote

""Probably the best example of this playbook in action is Helly Hansen in Canada, our biggest project to date. So far, we're on track with our plans for bringing Helly Hansen to life across Canada, with expanded assortments online and in stores, and it's working. Helly Hansen sales in Canada year-to-date June were $39 million, up 63 percent in Q2 alone. I'm very proud of the partnership with the Helly Hansen team, and together we've strengthened the Canadian Tire marketplace. I'm looking forward to more opportunities like this in the future." — Allan MacDonald, EVP, Retail, Q2 2019 Call"

Canadian Tire Corporation · CTC.A Spruce Point Capital · p. 48
quote ceo quote

""...the strategic infrastructure we have in North Dakota, having control of that adds a lot of value...that's not something we would be interested in MLPing...Energy Marketing and Retail Marketing remain a long-term strategic part of our portfolio that...builds upon our strong brand..." — John Hess, November 2012; "...monetization of our Bakken midstream assets expected in 2015...We have had this strategic transformation underway really...predominately when we started to build our Bakken position in 2010. So this is not something that just happened overnight..." — John Hess, March 2013"

Hess Corporation · HES Elliott Management · p. 39
quote villain critique

""They don't want you to come up with ideas, they want you to implement ideas that management bought from consultants." — Glass Door, November 3, 2015; "Don't rely on individuals that have titles to tell you what is really going on in the work environment. Talk to the people that live it daily." — Glass Door, February 2, 2017; "Less management more workers." — Glass Door, January 30, 2017; "Make changes specific to the plants instead of the company as a whole." — Glass Door, February 7, 2017; "Management is the problem. Great workers just poorly managed." — Glass Door, February 14, 2017"

Arconic Inc. · ARNC Elliott Management · p. 215
quote ceo quote

""The fun thing about Aerospace is that the innovation never stops. Arconic management loves to speak about innovation, the future of space exploration, 3D printing. They even started a venture capital fund. But for the Company to actually have the capital it needs to be a sustainable innovator, it will need to also have sustained operating improvements. Leveraging the momentum of early improvements, Arconic should eventually leave the goal of ‘closing the gap’ in the rearview mirror and aim for being the best operator and supplier in the industry." — Elmer Doty, Nominee for New Arconic"

Arconic Inc. · ARNC Elliott Management · p. 296
quote ceo quote

"“Fashion Show is a little bit of a different situation. The income there continues to grow very significantly, well ahead of our comp NOI average, and we expect that to continue. There are other things that we've been telling people for years that we're trying to get done there, including getting a certain portion of the project land in the Northeast corner under control, where we might be able to do additional development of that site, given its highly lucrative location right on the strip. So we wanted that flexibility.” — Bernie Freibaum, Former CFO of GGP, Q1’08 earnings transcript"

General Growth Properties · GGWPQ Pershing Square · p. 62
quote ceo quote

"So, the attempt -- I'm going to go back to the beginning of this -- so the attempt of Herbalife 101 was to break the distributors into single and multilevel. Why? Because A, it is truly single, and B, nobody questions single-level, knowing that most people who are in single-level aren't in it to make a lot of money. They are either in it for part time or it is self-consumption. If you go back to the old Avon model, before they were multilevel, right, self-consumption, not even an issue. It isn't not even covered on the FTC's website. It is expected. — John DeSimone, CFO, Herbalife Ltd."

Herbalife Ltd. · HLF Pershing Square · p. 116
quote villain critique

"In a Star story last fall, GFL president and CEO Patrick Dovigi said his company chose to be a good corporate citizen by cleaning up the mess left on farmer Ruco Braat’s land, in the hamlet of Bailieboro. Dovigi also said GFL took just 192 truckloads to the farm and suggested that another soil company brought the dirty soil to Braat’s land. After pleading guilty last week, Earthworx and its director, Claudio Villa, were fined $84,500 (plus a 25 per cent victim surcharge) for offences related to the deposit of soil contaminated with metals and organic compounds on the sheep farm. — Star"

GFL Environmental Inc. · GFL Spruce Point Capital · p. 31
quote other

"“So there are two threats [to Aquablation]. One is robotic HoLEP. So there's no question HoLEP is the best because you remove more tissue and it's bloodless. There's temporary incontinence, but we can overcome that...So, what if somebody invents a robotic HoLEP? There is at this point a cocktail napkin design of [it]. So it's many, many years away. But that would replace ablation in five minutes because laser is better than waterjet. The waterjet is sloppy. It's imprecise. It doesn't go deep enough, but it's the best we have. Laser is just better.” — Major Hospital Urologist, Nov 2024"

PROCEPT BioRobotics Corporation · PRCT Spruce Point Capital · p. 69
quote ceo quote

""With the establishment of boutique coffee shop, oatly even won a “big customer” in China this year: Starbucks, the world’s largest coffee chain. According to Zhang Chun, OATLY (President of Oatly Asia), including Starbucks, has entered more than 10 thousand cafes in mainland China." — China Food Press, Sept 27, 2020. "Our growth in China demonstrates the effectiveness of this expansion strategy... we had more than 8,200 points of sale in the channel, including an exclusive branded Starbucks partnership with 4,700 locations in China exclusive to us" — Oatly F-1 Registration Statement."

Oatly Group AB · OTLY Spruce Point Capital · p. 109
quote villain critique

"And from a capability point of view, we have all the ingredients what we need to compete with MSCI. So that's our ambition level. Yes, it's a EUR 600 million company from a revenue perspective, MSCI is 3 to 4x bigger. But nevertheless, from a qualitative perspective, we have all the ingredients to compete here. And we are winning market shares. We are winning customers here. — Gregor Pottmeyer, Deutsche Börse CFO, 2022 Investor Day; With a combination of ISS and STOXX, we have created a more credible, we call it, MSCI challenger. — Theodor Weimer, Deutsche Börse CEO, 2023 Investor Day"

MSCI Inc. · MSCI Spruce Point Capital · p. 26