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

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

Showing 2161–2220 of 37,061
quote ceo quote

""And I do know that when subscriptions grow 25% in a year, it's reasonably safe to say that we did in fact gain share, but that's how we count share." — BAML Conference February 2021; "Yeah. So in 2013, which is where we marked the beginning of our -- what we call Act 1, we do our work in five-year buckets. We were about a 3% market share holder in the North American market. We've grown that a couple of hundred basis points a year since 2013. And so we think we're sitting at about 13%, 14% as we enter 2021." — Barclays Conference March 2021"

Heska Corporation · HSKA Spruce Point Capital · p. 23
quote villain critique

"Nevro’s diabetic foot study should have taken them four months to fully recruit. ... They used rigid inclusion/exclusion criteria and basically have a medical monitor to pluck patients out saying, 'Well, that’s not outside the study but I just don’t have a good feeling about [this patient]' Doctors have called out Nevro a bunch of times for cherry-picking. — KOL and high volume implanter; The biggest problem with their study was the exclusion criteria. They committed the cardinal sin, which is to cherry-pick. — KOL and high volume implanter"

Nevro Corp. · NVRO Scorpion Capital · p. 164
quote villain critique

"“...other physicians are not so bullish about it...if you talk to some of the other investigators other than Jennifer Miller, you might get a different impression...I would say that you have a substantial number of investigators who are not so bullish about the drug”; “I fail to see how any third-party payor would accept this as a treatment...it’s a little bit like the Sarepta drug...you have one devastating DKA and heart failure...I think they had some serious adverse effects where somebody was admitted to the ICU.” — Ex-Soleno employee #1"

Soleno Therapeutics · SLNO Scorpion Capital · p. 224
quote ceo quote

"Q - Amit Singh: Hi, guys. This is Amit Singh for Jason. Just a quick question regarding your guidance for fiscal 2017. So the revenue growth guidance is around 20% year-over-year. How much of that is sort of inorganic from L4? . . . Q - Amit Singh: Okay. And is the inorganic contribution around 1%, 2% from L4? A - Martín Migoya (CEO): Oh, Ale, can you cover me on that? A - Alejandro Scannapieco: No. Definitely, definitely. It's pretty much in that range. . .So you are pretty much in the range. Yes. — 4Q16 Conference Call – February 16, 2017"

Globant SA · GLOB Spruce Point Capital · p. 17
quote villain critique

""Oxbryta pulled from market; $5.4bn GBT deal latest example of challenged BD track record... this will again raise questions on Pfizer's BD effort - feeding into old criticism around Pfizer's ability to pick winners through BD." — Barclays – Sept 25, 2024; "When you cover biotech and pharma - it's hard to find a headline that's truly jarring, but news that PFE is recalling Oxbryta/discontinuing all active trials after seeing a death/ VOC imbalance in clinical trials & lack of overall risk-benefit fits the bill." — Jefferies – Sept 26, 2024"

Pfizer Inc. · PFE Starboard Value · p. 50
quote ceo quote

"“We gotta get Fannie and Freddie out of government ownership. It makes no sense that these are owned by the government and have been controlled by the government for as long as they have. In many cases this displaces private lending in the mortgage markets and we need these entities that will be safe. So let me just be clear we’ll make sure that when they’re restructured they’re absolutely safe and they don’t get taken over again but we gotta get them out of government control.” — Steve Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary nominee, on Nov. 30, 2016"

Unknown · p. 57
quote other

"Mosten argues that “the Contract is (and UL contracts generally are) a unique type of insurance product. It is neither term life insurance nor whole life insurance. The components of the Contract, which are the benefits provided to the policy owner, are both permanent life insurance protection and flexible investment opportunities. While one investment element is the ability to tax-shelter growth on certain funds accumulated in the Contract, this is only one of other investment opportunities under the Contract.” — Mosten Reply Brief of Law"

quote ceo quote

""In Asia, so it accounts for $90 million of our $200 million export business... So big, big ideas, big, big expectations for China in the future." — CEO Farrell, CAG NY Conference, Feb 2019; "This should be in that Tier 4 that hasn't even been implemented yet when anything and everything from China could be impacted. So no impact on tariffs right now.." — CFO Dierker, FLAWLESS Call, March 2019; "So Waterpik has been hit with a 25% tariff... it's 25% upcharge on everything that comes from China..." — CEO Farrell, CAG NY Conference, Feb 2019"

Church & Dwight Co., Inc. · CHD Spruce Point Capital · p. 85
quote villain critique

""Oxbryta pulled from market; $5.4bn GBT deal latest example of challenged BD track record... this will again raise questions on Pfizer's BD effort - feeding into old criticism around Pfizer's ability to pick winners through BD." — Barclays – Sept 25, 2024; "When you cover biotech and pharma - it's hard to find a headline that's truly jarring, but news that PFE is recalling Oxbryta/discontinuing all active trials after seeing a death/ VOC imbalance in clinical trials & lack of overall risk-benefit fits the bill." — Jefferies – Sept 26, 2024"

Pfizer Inc. · PFE Starboard Value · p. 50
quote ceo quote

"“We gotta get Fannie and Freddie out of government ownership. It makes no sense that these are owned by the government and have been controlled by the government for as long as they have. In many cases this displaces private lending in the mortgage markets and we need these entities that will be safe. So let me just be clear we’ll make sure that when they’re restructured they’re absolutely safe and they don’t get taken over again but we gotta get them out of government control.” — Steve Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary nominee, on Nov. 30, 2016"

quote villain critique

"The biggest controversy from last night's Disney F4Q 2022 earnings call was management guidance that FY 2023 segment EBIT would grow in the high single digits vs. consensus growth of +25% and our own estimate of +34%. Rarely have we ever been so incorrect in our forecasting of Disney profits. Given the company's confidence that Parks trends appear resilient, it appears that the culprit for the massive earnings downgrade is much higher than expected DTC losses and significant declines at Linear networks. — MoffettNathanson, November 9, 2022"

The Walt Disney Company · DIS Trian Partners · p. 15
quote preempt rebuttal

"“Elliott renewed its call, first made in November 2023, for PSX to close its EBITDA/bbl gap vs. peers including VLO and MPC on a like-for-like basis.” — Citi Research, February 13, 2025; “An activist shareholder, Elliott, can be a positive catalyst for shareholders.” — Wells Fargo, November 29, 2023; “We agree that PSX’s midstream does not reflect full value...selling some midstream assets could unlock value.” — Bank of America, February 14, 2025; “Most investors we talked to welcomed Elliott's involvement in PSX.” — UBS, December 1, 2023"

Phillips 66 · PSX Elliott Management · p. 9
quote villain critique

"“They were having problems at the coin cell level...it is a very difficult problem because they're grinding ceramic down to little particles. They're creating this formulation, and they're casting it into a thin film, and you have to have zero defects” — Former R&D employee; “Obviously you're always going to hype up whatever you're doing. I don't know that they've completely nailed this... They probably just twisted the knobs and engineered a process to produce this set of results. The science is just not there yet.” — Former R&D employee"

QuantumScape · QS Scorpion Capital · p. 55
quote villain critique

"Note that we restricted the experiments to four qubits, because our main goal was to probe the regime where the evaluation oracle is invoked a large number of times in a noisy setting, achieving up to fifteen sequential oracle invocations with still excellent results. A next step would be to establish tradeoffs between circuit depth and number of oracle calls in an experimental setting, as theoretically proved in [9], and this may soon become feasible with further improvements in hardware. — IonQ / Goldman Sachs research paper (Sept 2021)"

IonQ Inc. · IONQ Scorpion Capital · p. 51
quote ceo quote

"“What happened was Twist started to come out—so, right out of the gate, as a finance person, what I never understood was you price DNA by the base, and at the time, a low price point for a gene was something like 35 cents a base and normally a fragment would be 1,000 to 2,000 bases. When Gen9 came out, I think they came out at 15 cents a base. But I never understood why they dropped so low when there was a little bit of room there.” — Executive recently at IDT, a key Twist competitor, currently employed at another synthetic biology player"

Twist Bioscience · TWST Scorpion Capital · p. 57
quote ceo quote

"Looking ahead, I anticipate fiscal year '24 revenue may reach the range of $8 billion to $10 billion, considering the current economic headwind may be lasting for many quarters. As we continue to gain IT market share with the best rack scale plug-and-play IT total solutions, I believe we will soon become a $20 billion revenue company. Our business model have been optimized, our engineering teams are fully ready, and our worldwide campus production capacity and efficiency are now second to none. — CEO Charles Liang, Q1 2023 Conference Call"

Super Micro Computer, Inc. · SMCI Spruce Point Capital · p. 23
quote ceo quote

"So, yeah, this business has grown double-digit, 10% for the last couple of years... it's safe to say, we expect 4% growth sustainable going forward year after year. — CEO Waterpik Deal Call 7/7/2017; The Waterpik business was growing rapidly prior to, to our acquisition. And what we said that we -- we see this business can grow high single digits for the foreseeable future — DB Conf June 2019; So first Waterpik... in 2018 we delivered 22% growth. Year-to-date '19, we are running at about the same rate in excess of 20%. — DB Conf June 2019"

Church & Dwight Co., Inc. · CHD Spruce Point Capital · p. 61
quote ceo quote

"“It’s an ultra-expensive device. They’re under increased scrutiny by the federal government. We have some frustrations with them because transplant centers will use it off-label... we have a surgeon here locally. He shows up and recovers the liver, and sends it to that transplant program. And then, that program puts the liver on the pump and then transplanted the liver later. Well, they transplanted the liver late. They actually lost the liver on the pump.” — CEO of a major OPO (Organ Procurement Organization), longtime industry executive"

TransMedics Group Inc · TMDX Scorpion Capital · p. 172
quote villain critique

"“Compounding pharmacies, that’s their business. They have a vested interest in using that for this. And it’s like, oh look at that. Usually, it’s just specialty prescribing and dose limitations that we start with for an orphan drug with no other approved therapies within it...then it’s like, oh, then you have to tell us why you can’t use the compounded version [...] it would be a simple email to our head of pharmacy. Tell me why we can’t use a compounding pharmacy to do the same thing here.” — Medical director at Blue Shield of California"

Soleno Therapeutics · SLNO Scorpion Capital · p. 271
callout valuation reveal

"Even if the market simply applies its existing 15.4x EV/EBITDA multiple to our more realistic view of Adj. EBITDA and adopts our calculation of net debt, the stock could have 30% downside. However, with Verint not growing organically, we value VRNT on the basis of a forward-year EV/EBITDA multiple, but on trailing Adj. EBITDA. With faster-growing and higher-quality industry peers trading at 10-11x forward-year EBITDA multiple, we believe that VRNT should trade at 8-10x forward EBITDA, implying a share price of $17-25 for 60-70% downside."

Verint Systems, Inc. · VRNT Spruce Point Capital · p. 108
quote villain critique

""I'm compensated based upon AFFO per share growth and ROIC. And so, it's very simple. And so, everything that we do, every new dollar that we allocate within the business will be to drive those - those two metrics in a very high quality way." — CEO Tom Bartlett, American Tower, May 2020; "Some folks want to see that growth on the revenue line. I continue to submit to you that the ROIC that we can produce by doing what we're doing is better and the value created for our shareholders will be better." — CFO Brendan Cavanagh, SBA, April 2018"

Crown Castle International · CCI Elliott Management · p. 59
quote villain critique

""We cannot stop thinking about the remarkable similarities between the story of Eastman Kodak and our view of Viacom. Basically two examples of once-dominant companies where the product that provides the majority of their profits (film; linear TV networks) is made obsolete by a digital world. Consumers are taking more photos than ever, and watching more video than ever—but using different underlying technologies with radically different economics and value chain structures." — Todd Juenger, Senior Analyst, U.S Media, Sanford C. Bernstein"

Viacom · VIAB SpringOwl · p. 71
quote ceo quote

""When we first embarked on our highest and best use strategy, our priority was to seek as many land-use entitlements for commercial and residential development in our region as possible. This continues to be one of our core competencies, and we now have land-use entitlements totaling over 31,000 residential units and approximately 11.6 million square feet of commercial space. Our opportunities are significant, and we believe that by taking measured risks, we will be able to extract meaningful value." — St. Joe 2010 Letter to Shareholders"

The St. Joe Company · JOE Greenlight Capital · p. 34
quote ceo quote

""The Company’s loss reserve committees estimate expected loss to be paid for all contracts by reviewing analyses that consider various scenarios with corresponding probabilities assigned to them. Depending upon the nature of the risk, the Company’s view of the potential size of any loss and the information available to the Company, that analysis may be based upon individually developed cash flow models, internal credit rating assessments, sector-driven loss severity assumptions and/or judgmental assessments" — AGO 10-K, February 23, 2018"

Assured Guaranty · AGO Greenlight Capital · p. 30
quote villain critique

""It’s fundamentally, in my opinion, an engine leasing company." — Source H. "Air Canada owned that shop. Aveos owned that shop. Lockheed Martin owned that shop. And it was always a big struggle. And if you look at Lockheed, that engine shop before Covid was dying, it was dead." — Consultant A. "I'm out last night with the guys from [Bulge Bracket] Bank, everyone is asking questions, like then, and the statements are ‘none of this makes sense.’ And when you really do a deep dive... you can see that, it doesn't make sense." — Consultant A."

FTAI Aviation Ltd. · FTAI Muddy Waters · p. 11
quote ceo quote

""Yeah, well, Intelligent we did last year, it's small more just product oriented and Contact Solutions similar small maybe a few in the quarter, but really small contribution. So to just clarify that we see a part of our land and expense strategy... we generally just focus on the technology and how to bring this technology into our portfolio and of course when we do a larger acquisitions then we provide a complete breakdown of revenue and gross margin and profit, but it's really not applicable in this case." — Doug Robinson – CFO, Verint"

Verint Systems, Inc. · VRNT Spruce Point Capital · p. 33
quote villain critique

"In 2022, it was identified that certain sale transactions with certain counterparties included the simultaneous execution of a corresponding contract to repurchase the same quantity of goods in the future for logistical purposes. In accordance with IFRS 15, such contracts should not be recorded as revenue from customers as such transactions do not relate to the selling of goods to the end customer. As a result, comparative amounts for revenue and cost of goods sold for 2021 have been similarly represented, with no impact on gross margin."

Bunge Global SA · BG Spruce Point Capital · p. 56
quote villain critique

"Certain information has been excluded from this exhibit because it is both not material and would likely cause harm to the company if publicly disclosed. — Sunnova (regarding investor capital commitment); In application of the law, we inform you that the information relating to the payment periods provided for in article D. 441-6 of the commercial code is not mentioned in the management report. Consequently, we cannot attest to their sincerity and their consistency with the annual accounts. — Auditor (regarding Pramac French subsidiary)"

Generac Holdings, Inc. · GNRC Spruce Point Capital · p. 10
quote appendix data

""you have more facts than I do," — Mr. Hughes; "What if we argue that Arthur Andersen changed its internal policy on this matter?" — Mr. Hughes; "We were mistaken. The audit guide changed in May 1997." — Merrill Lynch; "When our audit opinion was issued, we inquired as to why the language had changed. We understood, based upon explanation by our auditors, that they had simply conformed their opinion language to the new 2001 audit guide. We thought this meant that the guide had changed, thus requiring new opinion language." — Ms. Sweeney"

Allied Capital · ALD Greenlight Capital · p. 27
quote villain critique

"The Carl June lab did not receive a Beacon. They were supposed to receive a Beacon...We actually did work internally for UPenn...No, there was never an agreement. — Former BLI employee and scientist; Customers who didn't like it at all, I would say probably Bayer...They had several issues that were mostly related to hardware. They lost a few runs trying to troubleshoot...They lost some precious samples so they were pretty furious...Bayer was evaluating the tool on their premises and then sent it back. — Former BLI employee and scientist"

Berkeley Lights · BLI Scorpion Capital · p. 24
quote villain critique

""Quintis has not amended its profit guidance for 2016-17 because it had not factored any Galderma sales into its expectations, and its contract with the Swiss group did not specify any fixed volume. The company is predicting 2016-17 sandalwood product sales in the range of $45 million to $55 million for the full financial year, up from $29.9 million, it said at its half-year results in February and reiterated in March. Also, "cash EBITDA" will increase by at least 25 per cent on 2015-16, it has stated." — The Australian Financial Review"

Quintis Limited · QIN Viceroy Research · p. 28
quote ceo quote

"“Health Management’s vision is to lead the hospital industry in quality: Clinical metrics, patient outcomes, and customer service; and achieve top tier in the hospital industry in customer satisfaction for our patients, physicians, and associates.” — HMA vision statement. “For at least 7 of 13 Clinical Process of Care Measures in the CMS 2014 Hospital VBP, Health Management VBP Hospitals’ composite score for the First Grant Year will equal or exceed the Clinical Process of Care Measure National Median.” — HMA Incentive Compensation Plan"

quote villain critique

""The implication is clear: Norfolk Southern forced an unnecessary vent and burn of toxic chemicals to clear the tracks and get their trains moving. That greed threatened the health of my constituents—because profits mattered more than our safety." — Congressman Chris Deluzio (D-PA) to WPXI, Mar. 6, 2024; "FRA observes that NS has not promptly or comprehensively responded to FRA’s recommendations and significant findings from the 2022 NS System Audit." — Federal Railroad Administration, FRA 2023 NS Safety Culture Assessment, Aug. 9, 2023"

quote villain critique

"We note that Hims engages service providers, including physicians through the Affiliated Medical Groups and partner pharmacies, to provide its telemedicine and prescription services. Please revise the Company Overview to clearly describe the company's relationship with the Affiliated Medical Groups for the provision of its telemedicine services and partner pharmacies for its prescription services, the arrangements governing these relationships, and the regulatory landscape applicable to the company's business model. — SEC Comment Letter"

Hims & Hers Health, Inc. · HIMS Spruce Point Capital · p. 27
quote villain critique

"LiNiCo plans to commence production later this year, building toward cathode production capacity of about 10,000 tons per year. At just 33% of that rate and 60% of applicable commodity prices, the LiNiCo facility should generate more than $100 million in sales with pre-tax operating income margins exceeding 30%, adding 40 good paying Nevada jobs and making a landmark contribution to Comstock's Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (“ESG”), Product and Process Stewardship and Climate Smart Mining goals. — Comstock Press Release"

quote ceo quote

"“What we’d be comfortable saying is we developed a theory of what causes dendrites, a theory that was different from the conventional wisdom, and we were able to empirically validate the theory well enough to allow us to build solid-state separators that work at record-high levels of current density without needing elevated temperatures while delivering >1,000 cycles,” he said. “These are of course, the parameters you need to hit to be useful in real cars, so that’s why this development is interesting and important.” — QuantumScape CEO"

QuantumScape · QS Scorpion Capital · p. 69
quote ceo quote

""We will aim to be below 80 percent [operating ratio] in the year 2000. Ambitious goals? Perhaps, but I am convinced that they must be achieved." — Paul M. Tellier, CN’s 1996 Annual Report (April 1997); "With an operating ratio of 62.3% during 1997, Illinois Central is one of the most efficiently operating railroads in North America. As a result, a portion of the anticipated synergies from the Acquisition will be derived from the application of Illinois Central’s ‘best practices’." — CN / IC Merger Debt Securities Prospectus (May 1998)"

Canadian Pacific Railway · CP Pershing Square · p. 103
quote peer gap

"Because 1st Phorm are great marketers. Okay, go look up the two brothers, the two founders of 1st Phorm, they're very good marketers in social media. Very good. I would say even better than Monster because they understand how to market through the social influencers and with Anheuser-Busch and the partnership is making the product and distributing the product. Anheuser-Busch distributors have a vendetta, a vendetta against Monster because they lost it and now a vendetta against KDP (Keurig Dr. Pepper). — Former Monster Employee Opinion"

Monster Beverage Corp. · MNST Spruce Point Capital · p. 19
quote ceo quote

""The growth of electronic banking and other electronic payment systems is decreasing the demand for checks and consequently causing pricing pressure for our financial supplies business as competitors aggressively compete for share of this shrinking market." — Intuit Prospectus Supplement Filed 3/9/07. "When you combine revenue from Connected Services with other highly predictable sales such as financial supplies and tax desktop software, more than 80% of Intuit's revenue is recurring." — Brad Smith, Intuit CEO, on Q4 2012 Earnings Call"

Intuit Inc. · INTU Spruce Point Capital · p. 29
quote villain critique

""No, I've got quite a few patients. And, of the five patients, three of the patients actually asked me about the drug and were really requesting their kids to be on the drug... It would be extremely difficult to be telling parents — look, I'm not saying you shouldn't tell parents, but it would be extremely difficult to tell the parents all these concerns without it having...you need a name to these concerns, and the sooner they can put a letter out, the better." — Division Chief for pediatric endocrinology at a major NE academic center"

Soleno Therapeutics · SLNO Scorpion Capital · p. 369
quote ceo quote

""As a growing SaaS Company, we believe cash flow represents the best indicator to our path to profitability." — Q4 2019 Conf Call; "Business at key inflection point with recent launch of Lightspeed Payments." — Q4 2019 Earnings Presentation; "In our press release dated August 7, 2019, we updated the full year 2020 outlook with respect to cash flows used in operating activities... As a result, we are withdrawing the previous outlook that cash flows used in operating activities will be in the range of $9.5 to $11 million." — Q3 2020 MD&A"

Lightspeed Commerce, Inc. · LSPD Spruce Point Capital · p. 27
quote villain critique

"“Let’s See How NuSkin Weaves a Lie”: “At the scene, the reporter found that there were gathered nearly 20,000 people from Taiyuan, Shijiazhuang, Tianjin, and other places. Lights were flashing and speakers were thundering. The conference has several programs including Elite Reward and On-Site Interview. People who were commended went on the stage one by one and shouted loudly to lead audiences to chant slogans. Nearly 20,000 people audiences beat the toy palms in their hands. The atmosphere was heated.” — China People’s Daily (1/15/14)"

Herbalife Ltd. · HLF Pershing Square · p. 53
quote villain critique

"“So what we are looking to build is a vehicle that can have both dual use, civil and defense application that reuses as much as possible from the existing program we have today with a hybrid powertrain” and “we can flex between the civil side and the defense side and give upside to the ability to deliver more aircraft if we’re able to build and there are programs that are in place” — Archer Aviation CEO, Q1 2025 Earnings Call. “This program will build directly on Midnight’s core technology” — Archer Aviation CTO, Q4 2024 Earnings Call."

Archer Aviation Inc · ACHR Grizzly Research · p. 64
quote ceo quote

"GFL will play with its numbers. If one division is outperforming to forecasts, they'll transfer some of those dollars to a division that isn't performing so well to bolster those numbers. An example would be between hauling and transfer stations. They'll allocate the repair/fuel/labor to truck repair and transfer, over to hauling to bolster either P&L to basically suit what the market is looking for. Should they do it, no, do they do it, yes. But that's not unique to GFL; GFL is a special case. GFL is aggressive. — Former GFL Employee"

GFL Environmental Inc. · GFL Spruce Point Capital · p. 47
quote villain critique

"GFL will play with its numbers. If one division is outperforming to forecasts, they'll transfer some of those dollars to a division that isn't performing so well to bolster those numbers. An example would be between hauling and transfer stations. They'll allocate the repair/fuel/labor to truck repair and transfer, over to hauling to bolster either P&L to basically suit what the market is looking for. Should they do it, no, do they do it, yes. But that's not unique to GFL; GFL is a special case. GFL is aggressive. — Former GFL Employee"

GFL Environmental Inc. · GFL Spruce Point Capital · p. 51
quote ceo quote

"“Yes, so I would say certainly, we have been pretty disappointed in a few different cases around the top line expectations that we've set out, as a lot of this evolution that we've been talking about has either taken longer than we originally expected, or we've seen kind of signs of it working really well, when we like hoped, but a lot less consistent globally in certain spots, which has been a drag on the overall growth... We expect revenue growth at that stage to be in the 12% to 18% range.” — CFO Dylan Smith, BoxWorks, October 2019"

Box, Inc. · BOX Starboard Value · p. 65
quote other

""You can setup a clear aligner FDA approved lab in less than a year. Your capital equipment costs between buying three [high-volume] 3D printers and thermoforming machines can be less than $100K to get started. If you add in labor, your total costs in your first year will be less than $200K." — Senior Employee, Major Dental Equipment Supplier; "Our group has a committee looking to get a relationship with one of these [third-party labs] as our own print farm. They seem keen on one or two affiliated with carbon printers." — Orthodontist"

Align Technology, Inc. · ALGN Spruce Point Capital · p. 34
quote ceo quote

"“We’re number one in about 2/3 of the segments in which we compete...We’re number one in the cement additives business...Number two in concrete admixtures worldwide...We’re number one in a segment of the waterproofing business” — Greg Poling, President & CEO, January 2016. “We have a nimble, very low capital intensity business, and a very flexible footprint...We think these are sustainable advantages...Our margins and return on invested capital are as high as you’ll see in the industry...” — Greg Poling, President & CEO, January 2016."

GCP Applied Technologies · GCP Starboard Value · p. 22
quote ceo quote

"It is not a new product or a stand-alone new platform to replace other products. It is instead a vehicle for integrating MSCI's world-leading content and analytics using software powered by Azure. — COO, Q4 2022 / Jan 2023. And that should move us away from some of the legacy platforms, which have been, to a degree, a drag on our growth. — COO, Barclays Conf, May 2023. So MSCI ONE realizes the dream of One MSCI that we've been talking about for maybe about a decade across asset classes, across product lines. — CTO, RBC Conf, Nov 2023."

MSCI Inc. · MSCI Spruce Point Capital · p. 20
quote villain critique

"The ones who are making some real difference is the companies that invested in, for instance, new ways of doing home renovation. I came across some of the startups or some of the companies in China. They are doing something different. For instance, they will offer a total solution to your home renovation, with different materials and different ways of doing home renovation, which is quite different from that of Shengdu. Shengdu is a service provider. It does not have this kind of technology. I'm pretty negative about this acquisition."

KE Holdings · BEKE Muddy Waters · p. 46
quote appendix methodology

"In China and in emerging markets the level of corporate governance may vary significantly between companies. Corporate governance is important as it provides mechanisms whereby outside investors can protect themselves against expropriation by insiders. Corporate governance can impact on the risks that outside investors may face in respect of any expropriation of assets. These factors together with the size and other market frictions may warrant an adjustment to the cash flow expectations and/or an — Dr. Mardsen, University of Auckland"

Sino-Forest Corporation · TRE Muddy Waters · p. 32
quote appendix data

"Es ist gar nicht so einfach im Sitzen zu präsentieren. Vielleicht, um grundsätzlich die Herausforderungen unserer Firma ein bisschen zu schildern, lohnt es sich manchmal doch ein bisschen auf die Zahlen zu schauen. Wenn man nur den Umsatz betrachtet... Wenn man die Anzahl der Mitarbeiter betrachtet, wenn man die Ergebnisse, Entwicklung sich ansieht - am Ende auch so etwas wie Marktkapitalisierung - haben wir innerhalb von drei Jahren einen extremen Transformationsprozess und enormen Wandel hingelegt mit der Firma. — Christian Schmalzl"

Ströer SE & Co. KGaA · SAX Muddy Waters · p. 42
quote ceo quote

"... the reagents revenue is tracking with our expected annuity at around $60,000 to $80,000 per box. ... So once the system is contracted commercially, we have a three-month to four-month lag and then we have that consumable churning on — Steve Reichling. ....we continue to see an annuity stream in the range of $45,000 to $65,000 per instrument with U.S. customers at the upper end of the range and EMEA pulling down the overall average. ...Our target for the time from contract signature to go live is four to nine months. — Larry Mehren"

Accelerate Diagnostics · AXDX White Diamond Research · p. 16
quote villain critique

""Under the turnaround Helly Hansen overhauled its management and cut its product lines by a quarter. Working capital fell to a third from more than a half of its sales as it reduced inventories and cut capital spending." — Financial Times (FT); "We focused on the basics of getting cash in as quickly as we could... Quite frankly the first three to four months weren't particularly pleasant... We've taken the business from being a sales-driven company in the last 10 years to a more consumer-focused one" — Paul Stoneham, CEO Helly Hansen"

Canadian Tire Corporation · CTC.A Spruce Point Capital · p. 40
quote villain critique

"“The investor-focused approach keeps Wall Street bullish on Viacom but raises questions about whether creative executives feel comfortable throwing audacious ideas against the wall.... “You have people who are fearful of their jobs and their livelihood, and the chances of someone taking a chance in that scenario are very small,” Mr. Juenger, the analyst, says. Or, as a media executive close to Viacom puts it: “The sense over there is, ‘I like the private plane and I don’t want to get fired.’” — Mr. Juenger and unnamed media executive"

Viacom · VIAB SpringOwl · p. 65
quote villain critique

"Management is terrible, they are very unclear with what they want done, always had to play a guessing game with what tasks could be done. people have no clear understanding of who can work in the pharmacy as upper management overstep and delegates tasks to people who are not qualified to do tasks. If something happens and safety is in jeopardy, it is kept a secret from all employees even though they promote an environment where transparency and clear communication happens. — Certified Pharmacy Technician in New Albany, OH (Glassdoor)"

Hims & Hers Health, Inc. · HIMS Spruce Point Capital · p. 61
quote ceo quote

""The Federal Reserve Board has been unable to find any credible purpose for the huge balance sheets built by Fannie and Freddie other than the creation of profit through the exploitation of the market-granted subsidy. Fannie's and Freddie's purchases of their own or each other's mortgage-backed securities with their market-subsidized debt do not contribute usefully to mortgage market liquidity, to the enhancement of capital markets in the United States, or to the lowering of mortgage rates for homeowners." — Alan Greenspan, 5/19/2005"

quote villain critique

"As stakeholders in Solvay we demand that the Board of Directors publicly states that the Company commits to bring its Rosignano plant fully in line with the strictest requirements of the UN Sustainable development goals (SDGs), with reference to SDG 14 (“Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”) and SDG 14 Target 14.1 (“By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, particularly from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution”)"

BlackRock · BLK Bluebell Capital · p. 55
quote villain critique

"“I used to be with Novartis in their cell and gene therapy division for five years. As part of the clinical workflow, not the commercial workflow, we used to use Berkeley Lights for certain cell characterization assays and certain early development phases. I believe it was acquired at the end of 2018. This one was in a clinical development pilot line for cell therapies, and they just had a single machine for the cell and gene therapy unit This is for cell line development, particularly for T cell therapies.” — Former Novartis Manager"

Berkeley Lights · BLI Scorpion Capital · p. 69
quote villain critique

"“two companies a week were coming in with the same designs and talking to me about the same things.” — Unnamed new space CEO. “[Apollo Fusion] is a company that has made claim 1 and failed, made claim 2 and failed, and is now building something that everyone else has been building forever.” — Unnamed expert. “I’ve long believed that there has been an amazing opportunity to provide communications satellites, essentially an internet in the sky, with the opportunity to provide internet anywhere and everywhere, fulfilling” — Craig McCaw."

Astra Space, Inc. · ASTR Kerrisdale Capital · p. 20