Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

""We have developed a culture of continuous improvement in Refining and are targeting $5.50 per barrel adjusted controllable cost, excluding turnarounds, over the next two years." — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, Q4 2024 Earnings Call; "We continue to lower our costs, and we talked about how sustainable those cost improvements are. And that's what gives us the confidence that we will that see Refining able to contribute to that $14 billion of mid-cycle EBITDA." — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, Q2 2024 Earnings Call"

"February 9th, 2022: We're in a really great place with having the manufacturing being built out in Salt Lake City at the Teal factory...The production line that we're building, by the way, can do up to 2,000 drones a month. We're not there yet...but that production line will be able to do 2,000 a month...we've doubled the size of the production facility so that once we get to the max that we can on this existing production line, we're actually going to build another one in the same facility. — Red Cat Management"

"a back to the drawing board moment — Neurology Professor/Author of SLEEP editorial. very seductive tale in which the protagonist is brain histamine. — Neurology Professor/Author of SLEEP editorial. additional methodological concerns — Neurology Professor/Author of SLEEP editorial. is not at all surprising — Neurology Professor/Author of SLEEP editorial. this should temper concluding that...histamine...is the principal arbiter of sleepiness in primary hypersomnias. — Neurology Professor/Author of SLEEP editorial."

"“The ‘strategic partnership,’ however, is a sham designed to lock up a significant portion of the vote in favor of the Board’s recommended slate of directors. Specifically, simultaneous with the announcement of the Investment Agreement, the Board announced plans to use the proceeds to launch a ‘Dutch Auction’ self-tender to purchase $500 million of common stock in the open market, indicating the Company had no operational need to raise capital.” — Building Trades Pension Fund of Western Pennsylvania (Complaint)"

""[O]ur performance was strengthened by our guiding principle to always attack waste... This included an effort to begin rationalizing our facilities and organizational assignments to drive unnecessary expense out of the business and to improve our customer intimacy by delayering the organization. We remain focused on executing our global pipeline of opportunities to improve our efficiency and reduce our waste. This will remain a major focus in fiscal year '08 and beyond." — Tony Aquila, CEO, President, Chairman"

""[Advisory positions] are not held accountable to shareholders as they do not serve on the board. Still, they can apply pressure on the board and are often referred to as 'ghosts in the boardroom' or 'corporate backseat drivers'. In cases where the former CEO remains as a senior adviser, they may exercise unreasonable influential power over incumbent management members, which could be detrimental to the board's functioning and dynamic." — L&G (2024 - Japan corporate governance and responsible investment policy)"

"However, the key challenge facing titanium alloy recycling is the removal of oxygen due to the strong affinity between titanium and oxygen. Therefore, the critical aspect in recycling titanium alloy scrap is the effective removal of oxygen. The current titanium alloy scrap recycling methods, which are effective to varying degrees, have notable limitations. — Environmentally Friendly and Simple Recycling of Titanium Alloy Scrap via Deoxygenation with Hybrid Hydrogen Plasma Arc, Advanced Science, January 21, 2025"

"One company, NCR Corporation, made a distinct effort to ensure its declassification proposal surpassed the 80 percent of outstanding shares supermajority vote requirement. ... NCR took the extraordinary step to adjourn its meeting twice in order to solicit additional votes for the declassification proposal. When the annual meeting convened for a third time, the declassification proposal had received the requisite votes of outstanding shares for passage at 80.1 percent. — ISS Post Season Review, October 12, 2016"

""This is an unprecedented combination of world-class brands. It reinforces Time Inc.’s commitment to the Internet and our effort to deliver content in multiple ways," — Ms. Moore. "It’s going to be a challenge targeting four different audiences on one page," — David Smith, chief executive of Mediasmith Inc. "We’re serving one master, and that master is the user, who is looking for a single destination with full breadth that offers an array of choices, so he doesn’t have to bounce around" — Publishing executive."

""In terms of margins, the accounting change really accounts for the shift that you're seeing. So we have not revised up or revised down our expectations" — DuPont Management. "...Safety and Protection margin [targets] that you show are 21% to 23% which is what they were 18 months ago. But you now exclude your pension cost...[which was] more than 500 basis points." — Jeff Zeakauskas, JP Morgan. "...You're right, Jeff. The margin is lower between 400 and 500 basis points from that standpoint" — DuPont Management."

""The basic message is clear--long-term interest rates are expected to rise gradually over the next few years... The forecasts in chart 4 imply a total increase of between 200 and 300 basis points in long-term yields between now and 2017." — Ben Bernanke; "I'm certainly comfortable in this rate environment being floating...I'm not sure that you are going to see much growth in interest rates. A ten-year treasury is at 1.64." — HMA CFO; "The bond market is a bit of a disaster right now," — Prudential Fixed Income."

"I think the DIY products have gotten better. We tried to sit and talk about the value of everything working together and how amazing that is, but the disparate apps is not that challenging of a consumer experience. I have to think that that's impacting our dealer's business. By the way, I still want to buy amazing speakers, and I really want beautiful lights, and I want automated shades, but I can get that from my dealer, and I don't have to have a Control4 system to manage it. — Former SVP of Marketing, SnapAV"

"“Prestige is not what you think of a pharma company. The company does not actually create and research new products - it is a buyout firm that buys drug brands that are already past patent life and are competing with generics. The best hope is that customers are ignorant and continue paying premiums. Each of the company's products will eventually reach end of life. There is no growth beyond short term marketing gimmicks. Products and brands get bought to come here to die.” — Current employee (November 18, 2019)"

"“The percentage of product of any multi-level marketing company consumed by its distributors is substantial. This is not surprising since consumers who are enthusiastic about the products become distributors in order to purchase at a discount and possibly to share and sell the products to others. In addition, in order to minimize the risk of product being accumulated by distributors, the company has policies in place such as the 70% Rule, the Ten Customer Rule and the Buy Back policy.” — Herbalife 8-K (5-2-12)"

"“In terms of margins, the accounting change really accounts for the shift that you're seeing. So we have not revised up or revised down our expectations” — DuPont Management. “...Safety and Protection margin [targets] that you show are 21% to 23% which is what they were 18 months ago. But you now exclude your pension cost...[which was] more than 500 basis points.” — Jeff Zekauskas, JP Morgan. “...You're right, Jeff. The margin is lower between 400 and 500 basis points from that standpoint” — DuPont Management."

"“One trend I'm seeing is that lawncare companies are offering exterior, perimeter pest control. That's easy for them to do, perimeter spray. That's one of the biggest trends I'm seeing. There are even pool service companies offering pest control, for example ABC Pest Control in Texas, does lawncare, pest, and pool. Attic installation is a big one too. It adds pest control and energy value. Rollins does that. Crawl space encapsulation also is a service that goes really well with pest control.” — Industry Expert"

"“For longer distance of marginal grafts, we use other cooler systems that are really coming around, which we’ve found have less re-perfusion injuries...post-transplant.”; “for both DBD and DCD, we’ve been trying to prioritize using these coolers that keep the heart closer to 8-10 degrees or so”; “even for long distance using 8 or 10-degree coolers is the preference...we’ve traveled as far as Alaska to procure hearts and haven’t had any issue.” — Transplant cardiologist at one of the top centers in the US/world"

"“Consistent with the observation of hyperglycemia as an adverse event, fasting glucose rose through Week 26 (Change from baseline mean±SD 0.35±0.81 mmol/L) and had returned nearly to baseline by 65 weeks of treatment (Baseline mean±SD 4.997±0.635 mmol/L; 65 weeks 5.126±0.692 mmol/L). HbA1c followed a similar pattern, being elevated at 26 Weeks (Change from Baseline mean±SD 0.19±0.50%) and returned nearly to baseline by 65 Weeks (Baseline mean±SD 5.547%±0.4069%; 65 weeks 5.572% ±0.5103%).” — Miller et al (2024)"

"The KOL provided ominous color for Soleno’s nascent launch effort – that the highest-volume PWS endocrinologists are “cynical,” citing three with among the most patients in the field; that insurers are simply denying prescriptions, for the few “throwing out a couple of test cases to see”; that physicians are highly concerned about adverse effects and the onerous monitoring and follow-ups required; and that leading PWS physicians are worried about naïve primary care docs prescribing the drug given its toxicity"

"I see if we have change, we have something -- a killer product, which what we're bringing this year. I think we released already. And so that's our growth strategy. And other things worth to mention about, since we're now focused on the mega market and also we're now focusing -- we're now doing things chasing the revenue next 12 months. We have really a long consistency, see where our values, where things ought to be. And that's where we've put our resources into. — CEO Hsing, William Blair June and July 2016"

"From a vertical perspective, we saw advertising spend in Q4 increased year-over-year in industries such as automotive, entertainment, food, retail, sports and political, while verticals such as CPG, personal and consumer finance, fashion, electronics and other sectors tide heavily to consumer discretionary spending, so advertising spend decline year-over-year during Q4. Importantly, despite the macro backdrop continuing to impact the overall advertising demand environment, — Tremor Year End Call March 7, 2023"

""[Bob] Iger had personally selected every member of the board, which is surprisingly lacking in media and entertainment experience. Iger is personally close with several of them, including Nike Executive Chairman Mark Parker and General Motors CEO Mary Barra [who is on Disney's Compensation Committee]. In addition, the wife of another director, Michael Froman, then vice chairman of Mastercard and now president of the Council on Foreign Relations, had been housemates with Iger's wife..." — CNBC, September 2023"

"“We remain steadfastly invested in Disney’s long-term success...” — Disney Letter to Shareholders, 02/01/24; “The Disney Board... [is] comprised of engaged, diverse and dynamic leaders whose skillsets are closely aligned with the key drivers of our business...” — Disney Letter to Shareholders, 02/01/24; “[We have] a strong Board focused on the long-term performance of the company, strategic growth initiatives, the succession planning process, and increasing shareholder value.” — Disney Press Release, 01/16/24"

"“Well, a couple of things. I remember that diazoxide trials a few years ago failed...these are not well-recognized journals or high-quality data points. I find it very interesting that there may be some internal inconsistencies that I am unaware of, and I’m now quite curious about finding out more of this background to help me understand the right thing to do for my patients based on primary endpoint analysis, not just on marketing messages.” — Endocrinologist with academic and community hospital affiliations"

""If you use the hybrid solver, the hybrid solver has to compose QUBO problems... you can substitute quantum with classical and still get better results. So, the entire hybrid framework could be beneficial, but it’s not because of quantum, it’s because of its construct, and the quantum part can be replaced with classical." — Former D-Wave data scientist; "D-Wave is selling bullsh-t" — Executive at large multi-national technology and logistics company, former professor of quantum physics and quantum algorithms."

"there are concerns with pumping a heart for a long period...a pump is not a benign thing...if you go back and read the comments on the FDA panel, there’s data from TransMedics studies that suggest myocardial edema...whether the data will ultimately support this is still being hotly debated at transplant meetings...there still remains skepticism about pumping organs...and increasing the ischemic time...the data that surrounds OCS, does the patient really benefit, and is there truly no hard done to that organ?"

"“Ok, firstly I just mentioned that we are doing business globally we are selling products to different countries and we need to make sure we comply with tax laws regulations in all countries including China, Macau, other countries including US, UK. A lot of countries globally and if some of our transactions are conducted through Macau and we do make sure these transfer pricings are not in breach of any regulation of any countries, not just Macau. And we from time to time will arrange tax health checks” — CFO"

"“The AI stuff where it learns, that was already happening... It's all hocus-pocus. From a hospital system, it's not worth the extra $100,000. It's not worth the extra cost of your disposables, and it doesn't really change anything.”; “They are forcing the physicians to input the data themselves with the new HYDROS system... It's probably going to slow down the procedure by about 10 minutes a case... it's really annoying... A little bait and switch.” — Tegus Interview with Private Practice Urologist, Dec 2024"

"“On Slide 25, you can see the evolution of our ion trap and the vacuum chamber. In 2016, this is a vacuum chamber found today in many academic settings. The 2020 device is our new 32 qubit system, and about the size of a deck of cards...But by 2023, we expect that much of the optics, the ion trap, and the vacuum can all be blown onto a single chip, and then we network them together with an optical cable; another area where IonQ’s founders have already shown in working in their labs.” — IonQ CEO Peter Chapman"

""The study focuses on preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy, or PGT-A, which screens embryos for chromosomal abnormalities that could keep them from implanting. The diagnostic tool has been controversial for decades, since no rigorous studies have conclusively proven the test improves the odds of having a baby... Clinicians and researchers told STAT say they believe most providers have good intentions, but they are still offering patients an unproven, expensive, and possibly risky procedure." — STAT"

""Some companies do not include overdrafts in the definition of cash; instead, they include it in accounts payable. Consequently, the company treats the overdraft as an operating activity (change in accounts payable). So, the company includes the negative cash as a change in a liability in the operating section of the cash flow statement. (Some accountants treat overdrafts as a financing activity, but they clear quickly. Therefore, an operating activity classification is more appropriately.)" — CPA Hall Talk"

"“The gray line is something every lab can produce, and I would say it’s the real data because you can clearly see the data points. The blue line, I think, is wishful. It’s not real. There's no variation in the data. I cannot see any data points. It’s just a randomly drawn line. It's not actual data. That's my interpretation for slide 17. If they were going to peer review like in science journals or publications, a reviewer like me would definitely ask for the original data set.” — Leading solid-state expert"

"“The gray line is something every lab can produce, and I would say it’s the real data because you can clearly see the data points. The blue line, I think, is wishful. It’s not real. There’s no variation in the data. I cannot see any data points. It’s just a randomly drawn line. It’s not actual data. That’s my interpretation for slide 17. If they were going to peer review like in science journals or publications, a reviewer like me would definitely ask for the original data set.” — Leading solid-state expert"

"“[Unity®] will provide everything a legal practice needs….in one single destination. The global nature of the platform ensures that users in all markets benefit from the same one-stop user experience in every market.” — Dye & Durham Press Release (September 2023); “Matt is just slapping the Unity® name on a bunch of products he bought. There is no real integration. These are different applications that were put together to a login page under the Unity® name.” — Former employee of Dye & Durham – October 2024"

"Under the terms of the amended MIPA, it was agreed with the Sellers, that (i) revenue and EBITDA of Pub Ocean will be attributed towards Sellers' revenue and EBITDA targets under the MIPA with Perion; and (ii) Sellers will bear 40% of the cost of milestone payments that are ultimately payable to Pub Ocean under the Asset Purchase Agreement (as defined below), which will be paid solely by deductions from their own earn-out payments and certain escrowed amounts. — Perion 20-F Reports and Spruce Point analysis"

""The timing and acceptance of Element AIM is a key assumption in our model...I could tell you that it's about less than 5% of our total revenue projected for 2021. As we move into a global launch in '22 and '23, we're still targeting about a 10% annual installed base, but on our global customer profile, and obviously, with that would come a significant contribution to revenue in those two years, exceeding 10% and exceeding 15% just based on those targeted percentages." — Wilson (Investor Day, November 2020)"

"“And just quickly on the whole B2B side partnerships, is that all, I mean, that's sort of a money losing business. What's the strategy there?” — Spruce Point Question. “It's definitely a money losing business. Caryn wants to be ubiquitous... I don't think companies are willing to pay a dollar a person or a dollar a transaction... I think when I was there, they were really focused on sports and sports had no margins, and we actually paid the sports stadiums for the right to be there.” — Former CLEAR Employee"

""To that point on Slide 13, we are moving toward a bioplastic world even faster than we projected 6 months ago... Upon completion, we will be in a much better position to serve our growing order commitments from customers." — Stephen Croskrey, CEO Danimer Scientific; "Yes. It's -- in the early years, I would say it's roughly 10% under contract... And so we -- while we don't have offtake agreements yet with those customers, we have forecasts and plans are in place." — Stephen Croskrey, CEO Danimer Scientific"

""One of the reasons I left, and I think is probably the biggest risk to the business is companies like Microsoft and Amazon doing more and more business direct with the government... I doubt Microsoft or Amazon are going to be subcontractors if they can do it directly." — Former Leidos C-Suite Business Executive. "The decision by the Department of Defense to go with Microsoft Azure versus AWS is really immaterial to us. We won't be affected by that decision in any way." — CEO Krone, Q3'2019 Conference Call."

"“Across the three machines, we’d have daily issues. Some consumable parts within, such as mirrors and the like, that when they were approaching their end of life, we’d see an uptake in issues, but it wouldn’t warrant shutting the tool down just because the end goal was trying to maintain 24/7 operation based on customer needs. So, there was a balance between sacrificing a little bit of speed and functionality for maintaining uptime.” — Former Lasertec field service engineer who worked in the Intel mask shop"

"“The businesses that will remain in our portfolio fit very well within our core capabilities. We understand the consumers of these businesses. These businesses fit our brand and product model, are sold primarily in our core channels of distribution and we can source them more effectively and efficiently than third parties. These businesses have proven track records. The more focused portfolio will be much simpler to manage, to operate and to execute in store.” — P&G Presentation at CAGNY, February 19, 2015"

"(1) A local planning authority ... may make a change to any planning permission ... relating to land in their area if they are satisfied that the change is not material. (2) In deciding whether a change is material, a local planning authority must have regard to the effect of the change ... on the planning permission as originally granted. (3) The power conferred by subsection (1) includes power – (a) to impose new conditions; (b) to remove or alter existing conditions. — Town and Country Planning Act 1990"

""There aren't any other companies operating the way that Nevro was. There were enough people that would have known that it couldn't have happened without the head office knowing... Obviously, they were used as sacrificial lambs... [The Switzerland program] is totally crazy." — Former Nevro executive; "Usually the physicians, like in Germany, 85% of them are all university doctors... I could see something like that happening. That would be pretty easy to happen in that environment." — Former Nevro executive"

"I don't think there are many COOs of publicly traded companies, who could just sit down here and tell things in such a believable and sympathetic fashion. I can only say – for us, from the Rockstars perspective, it is pretty clear that what you are doing is exactly that – being rock stars. You simply say, "Okay, a certain amount of anarchy is unavoidable. We'll go straight in. We believe in what we are doing. We have a completely different way of thinking as all the other players in the market." — P. W. M."

"Included in transaction revenues was the impact of a newly negotiated contract with our Payments partner at Upserve and ShopKeep. This new contract did two things, provide us with better economics than the businesses we're achieving on their own and also brought us better control over the end customer relationships. As a result of this we were able to realize an uplift in revenue of approximately $7 million in the quarter and greater gross margins as well, this is a great news story. — CFO Nussey, May 2021"

"The ex-employee further alleged that TransMedics has no safety function or even one person in such a role, and that the VP of Global Regulatory Affairs featured on its management team is just “an ornament because she worked at the FDA before...she was never in the office...she was never in the office...she was not really involved with anything...she had never been to Boston...she was living in Washington, DC...she was not really engaged with any of us...we didn't know where she was or what she was doing.”"

"“Strategy is creating fit among a company’s activities. The success of a strategy depends on doing many things well – not just a few – and integrating among them. If there is no fit among activities, there is no distinctive strategy and little sustainability. Management reverts to the simpler task of overseeing independent functions, and operational effectiveness determines an organization’s relative performance.” — Michael Porter, “What is Strategy?”, Harvard Business Review, November-December 1996 Issue"

"So, you're going to attract a lot of attention from Chinese companies that would love to come in with like a substantially lower price. And quite frankly, they're glad to get 20 or 30 points margins. And their costs are a lot cheaper because it's all developed and built in China. So, the threat to Zebra is really there's like a whole pack of like Tier-2 and Tier-3 suppliers nipping at their heels from the bottom of the market with lower cost solutions. — Former Senior Product Manager at Zebra Technologies"

"A number of Elliott's nominees have close personal ties to Mr. Goff, including decades of direct work experience. Much like everything related to Elliott's Amber Energy, these relationships call into question Elliott's nominees' independence. Given Amber Energy's role in the campaign against Phillips 66 and Mr. Goff's highly misleading public solicitation, should shareholders have concerns about the honesty of Elliott's disclosures or the independence of Elliott's nominees? — Phillips 66's April 24 Letter"

"A number of Elliott's nominees have close personal ties to Mr. Goff, including decades of direct work experience. Much like everything related to Elliott's Amber Energy, these relationships call into question Elliott's nominees' independence. Given Amber Energy's role in the campaign against Phillips 66 and Mr. Goff's highly misleading public solicitation, should shareholders have concerns about the honesty of Elliott's disclosures or the independence of Elliott's nominees? — Phillips 66's April 24 Letter"

"“One study demonstrated 2–6 times higher incidence of diabetes mellitus than expected in the normal general population”; “international cohort studies indicate that GH therapy may increase the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in children and adolescents with predisposing risk factors, therefore it is prudent to monitor possible negative consequences on glucose metabolism during and after GH administration.” — Effects of growth hormone on glucose metabolism and insulin resistance in human (2017 paper)"

"“Leverage Ratio” means, as of the last day of any Test Period, the ratio of (a) Total Indebtedness as of such date to (b) Consolidated EBITDA for such Test Period; provided that, for purposes of determining Total Indebtedness, at any time after the definitive agreement for any Material Specified Acquisition shall have been executed, any Acquisition Indebtedness with respect to such Material Specified Acquisition shall, unless such Material Specified Acquisition shall have been consummated, be disregarded."

"Saputo completed the acquisition of Murray Goulburn based in Australia for A$1.3 billion (C$1.29 billion) in April 2018. The press release said, "MG produces a full range of high-quality dairy foods, including drinking milk, milk powder, cheese, butter and dairy beverages, as well as a range of ingredient and nutritional products, such as infant formula." (1) Furthermore, Saputo described Devondale as a "flagship" brand. Fast forward to today, we see it has discontinued certain drinks and infant formula."

""VAX-31 APPEARS BEST-IN-CLASS & SHOULD LEAD THE EXPANDING ADULT + INFANT MARKET... VAX-31 met non-inferiority to PCV20 across the board, was superior on many difficult and highly-prevalent serotypes, and the data were more striking than for V116. The probability of even broader superiority in Phase III (starting in H1) is now much higher. The ~$8B market could grow to over $13B by 2027, and we believe VAX-31 should become the leader and generate significant strategic interest." — TD Cowen, September 2024"

"On May 3, 2022, the Company's board of directors amended the share repurchase program adopted on March 4, 2022 to increase the aggregate amount the Company is permitted to repurchase from an aggregate amount of up to $150m to an aggregate amount of up to $600m of the Company's common stock. Additionally on May 3, 2022, the Company's board of directors adopted a dividend policy. Pursuant to this policy, the board intends to pay aggregate cash dividends of $1.50 per share of common stock per year. — Source"

"The discretionary components of our business, 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. and 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 Warning, June 24, 2024"

"In late 2011, fraud researcher Jon Carnes, who has among the best track records in the industry in identifying irregularities with China-based companies, issued a report on Silvercorp that alleged, among other things: The company’s technical reports were based on a 2-man team that used resource estimates provided by Silvercorp and who hadn’t visited the site in years. The quality and resource estimates of its mines were overstated. That a related-party transaction had enriched a relative of CEO Rui Feng."

"“They come in and say that they’re in it to increase the number of available organs transplanted to save lives - all of that stuff. We might have an organ donor in Reno... They will just flat-out say no... they will blanketly refuse to move... there are these hidden—for the transplant centers, it’s all these mystery fees that you don’t really know how many flights you’re going to pay for until they tell you how many flights they’ve used.” — Executive at a leading West Coast OPO, longtime industry veteran"

"“Yeah. They’re wondering - should we try to switch directions? Well, they’ve stopped enrolling. The concern is okay now what other drug — because it's been around for a long time now, it's got approval now. There must be enough concern potentially, that there may be something else out there that still could help us better. What other companies, what other drugs should we think about pursuing for treating Prader-Willi Syndrome?” — Trial investigator and physician; one of the leading KOL’s in the PWS field"

"I think there's a huge risk here to Lasertec, if machines are piling up and KLA is going around reassuring people that if you can hold off until mid-2025, we will have a system commercially available... They obviously will. And Lasertec could be caught with inventory they're going to have to significantly mark down... they would end up having to impair... could put a lot of pressure on them, which would probably require an asset write-down on the part of Lasertec. — Longtime executive at Global Foundries"