Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

""With the anticipated sale of INVISTA, DuPont will be a smaller company with the potential for higher growth and profitability...But unlocking that potential means doing things differently. If we are to meet our earnings growth objectives - which we will - we cannot support the complexity and cost entailed by diverse and specialized organizations and processes. The actions we are announcing today are necessary to ensure the near- and long-term competitiveness of DuPont." — Press release, 12/1/2003"

"“I never had a turn down,” no matter what the pump indicated for lactase, bile, or other biomarkers of viability... “they always wanted people to get people to accept the organ right away, and that is what it boiled down to...get it on the machine, and everything else was questionable...I never had a turn-down...I had thought that maybe people wouldn't want my liver because it wasn't putting much bile out, but they were like, no, we're actually happy with this.” — Former TransMedics OCS specialist"

""With the anticipated sale of INVISTA, DuPont will be a smaller company with the potential for higher growth and profitability...But unlocking that potential means doing things differently. If we are to meet our earnings growth objectives - which we will - we cannot support the complexity and cost entailed by diverse and specialized organizations and processes. The actions we are announcing today are necessary to ensure the near- and long-term competitiveness of DuPont." — Press release, 12/1/2003"

"Monsanto announced a fundamental change in its idea of an appropriate capital structure...Monsanto intends to begin an accelerated share repurchase program of $6b in 4Q:F14 or 1Q:F15 and to repurchase $11b in shares over a two year period or approximately 85 million shares or 16% of outstanding common [shares]. Monsanto is a good free cash flow generator and maintaining a 1.5x leverage target would imply meaningful future repurchase beyond the current $11b target by mid 2016. — JP Morgan (6/26/14)"

"“I have zero confidence this team can get this right and certainly not in the timeframe that is needed. I rarely call for wholesale change at a company, but that is what is needed here.” — Top 10 Active Shareholder; “Having the current CEO drive the process for a new strategy is not a good idea... This is a good time for the change.” — Top 10 Active Shareholder; “We have years of disdain from leadership, and that’s how labor has been treated... And here we are with an activist” — SWAPA leadership"

"“Opdivo had been considered the leader among the new class of medicines... The view of the rival drugs began to change in August, with the surprise announcement by Bristol-Myers that Opdivo had failed to best older chemotherapies in the Phase III [CHECKMATE-026] trial.... ‘Merck will completely ‘own’ the segment of first-line lung cancer patients who have high PD-L1 expression levels, and Bristol-Myers will capture nothing really,’ [Sanford Bernstein’s Tim] Anderson said.” — Reuters, October 2016"

"And so we launched our MVP Pro Rewards Program, which has been incredibly successful and exceeded all of our expectations. And when you combine it with our Lowe’s credit, those customers are incredibly more valuable, shop a lot more frequently. And then we put in a best-in-class CRM platform that gives us the ability to not only recognize the customer but recognize what they’re buying but more importantly, what they’re not buying and how we can help them grow their business. — MS Conf Dec 5, 2023"

""...operating priority is simply execution...I use data to drive decisions, I set clear targets...I set the competitive benchmarks and I continuously raise the bar." — Ellen Kullman, May 2, 2013 Investor Day. "Relative to our five year, long-term rolling growth targets (7% rev growth, 12% earnings growth)... we believe these goals are both appropriate and achievable. We fully endorse management's plan to achieve them and are encouraged by progress against them." — Alexander Cutler, March 5, 2014."

"CSIM believes that the board is typically best positioned to determine its leadership structure. Therefore, CSIM will typically not support proposals requiring the separation of these roles unless certain circumstances are in place. — Charles Schwab; We will generally vote for proposals looking to separate the CEO and Chairman roles unless the company has governance structures in place that can satisfactorily counterbalance a combined chairman and CEO/ president post. — JP Morgan Asset Management"

""In numerous instances in connection with the advertising, marketing, promotion, offering for sale, or sale of the right to participate in the Herbalife program, Defendants have represented, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that consumers who become Herbalife Distributors are likely to earn substantial income. In truth and in fact... consumers who become Herbalife Distributors are not likely to earn substantial income." — FTC v. Herbalife International of America, Inc., et al."

"“...so if I'm looking at an account that has 15 urologists and the average monthly utilization is seven, I'm going to sit there and think, well, something's wrong...as for why it's not growing, I don't know.” — Former Procept Executive, Nov 2024. “It's just not a money maker for the doctor. So, they're never going to bully us into doing more.” — Major Hospital Urologist, Nov 2024. “you're not seeing an increase in usage per physician, there's a stalemate...” — Former Procept Sales Rep, Nov 2024."

""As a result of the Company’s performance and in consideration of management’s transformation accomplishments and the importance of retaining and motivating IC-eligible executives and managers to complete the separation, the Compensation Committee approved a 34.2 percentage point increase (an aggregate increase of approximately $16.8 million for all IC-eligible participants) to the attained IC pool, resulting in a final below-target IC payout of 88.5%." — Alcoa 2016 Proxy Statement (for FY 2015)"

""Smart Provosts and CFOs are already rejecting OPM contracts as inconsistent with the long-term goals of the university... We are fast approaching the moment at which the permanent revenue share model will disappear. And so some of the traditional OPMs now offer schools as much as $2 million as a signing bonus. They're not doing it out of a humanitarian impulse; they're doing it to prop themselves up, knowing that their profit on your students will be ten or twenty times that." — Noodle Partners"

""Allegion was spun-off from Ingersoll Rand in December 2013. As an Ingersoll Rand board member, Nelson worked with us to craft a shareholder friendly governance structure that is an important element in keeping our leadership accountable for performance as a standalone entity. Nelson Peltz, the Trian team and Allegion believe that good corporate governance and good operational results go hand in hand. The results speak for themselves." — David Petratis, Chairman, President and CEO, Allegion, plc"

"“The [New York] Times interviewed a dozen former executives at companies targeted by Mr. Peltz, and all said he had bolstered results. . .” — The New York Times; “I’ve owned [Disney] stock in the past. The stock was a $200 stock three years ago. I would rather buy this stock at $150, with some synergy and some cooperation between Mr. Peltz and Disney’s Board and Bob Iger than at $112 with the Disney Board and Bob Iger saying, ‘thanks but no thanks, I don’t need your help.’” — Joe Terranova, CNBC"

"B. Riley has acquired Targus in a transaction valued at approximately $250 million on an enterprise value basis, which represents a multiple of approximately 5.2x Adjusted EBITDA for the trailing twelve-month period ending June 2022. Targus generated revenues of approximately $415 million for the same trailing twelve-month period. Financing for the transaction included approximately $85.5 million of bank financing, and $114 million of seller financing and B. Riley bonds. — B. Riley Press Release"

"PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and JOSEPH M. DEMAREST, JR., Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced today that Optimal Group, Inc ("Optimal")—a company based in Canada and publicly traded on the NASDAQ—agreed to forfeit approximately $19.2 million in criminal proceeds derived from processing payments for illegal Internet gambling websites as part of a non-prosecution agreement ("NPA")."

"To assess the inspection capability of the High-NA ACTIS A3XX, we performed imaging simulations using a rigorous optical simulator with electromagnetic calculations with conditions of circular illumination and a standard TaBn-based absorber with a thickness of 70 nm. In this simulation, A3XX shows a significant improvement in contrast, with more than 30% improvement for 30 nm half-pitch line-and-space and 64 nm contact holes. — Lasertec SPIE paper on ACTIS A300 High NA capabilities, Nov 21, 2023"

"You should assume that as of the publication date of our reports and research, Muddy Waters, LLC (possibly along with or through our members, partners, affiliates, employees, and/or consultants) along with our clients and/or investors and/or their clients and/or investors has a short position in all stocks (and/or options, swaps, and other derivatives related to the stock) and bonds covered herein, and therefore stands to realize significant gains in the event that the price of either declines."

"The company said one thing that we found interesting, maybe humorous. There was an admission that their combination of midstream and refining assets, that it wouldn't be attractive necessarily to a midstream investor... But the mix might be interesting to the generalist investor, which folks who are watching who follow the energy markets, I think will chuckle. The generalist investor being interested in energy is a fossilized creature that we can see in museums. That just doesn't exist anymore."

"BR lists its number #1 driver of Non-GAAP operating income margin is from “Scale and Natural OpEx leverage from a SaaS business.” However, Spruce Point does not believe that BR is a high-quality SaaS business, if one at all, given it admits it drives no pricing power and does not report metrics consistent with other SaaS companies such as Net revenue dollar retention or remaining performance obligation, and has just $414m of deferred revenue in relation to $3.7 billion of recurring fee revenue."

"During fiscal 2018, we generated $43.3 million in cash from operating activities compared to $59.1 million in cash generated from operating activities in fiscal 2017. The decrease was primarily a result of higher cash uses for income tax payables, accounts payables, accounts receivables and inventory. The decrease was partially offset by higher comparable net income, additional depreciation and amortization expense and deferred revenues and customer advances. — Mercury Systems FY 18 10-K, p. 41"

"“We hope that you will urge Elliott to cease its attempt to liquidate the company...” — John Hess, Hess Letter to Shareholders, March 2013. “...the board has backhandedly dismissed [shareholder's analysis] as a plan to 'liquidate' the company... 'Liquidation' is what results when a board takes its eye off the business equation for too long, not what happens when shareholders insist on taking a look for themselves.” — ISS Proxy Advisory Services, Recommendation: AOL Inc Proxy Contest, June 2012."

"Beginning January 1, 2023, a new CPT code went into effect covering full transcriptome testing when performed separately from DNA testing. Historically, our xT assay was actually comprised of two separate and distinct procedures, DNA and RNA. Given there was not an applicable CPT code for RNA, we did not bill that test. With the introduction of the new code, we now have two separate assays, one analyzing DNA – xT and one analyzing RNA – xR that are ordered and billed for separately. — Tempus AI"

"I would categorize Dropbox revenue growth as mid-growth (~20% YoY top-line growth). The interesting part is in the net income and free cash flow. The Company has guided to $1.6 billion revenue in FY19. If we apply a 20% growth rate to FY20, that would imply a ~$1.9 billion revenue. If we take management estimates of $375m of free cash flow, it would imply ~20x forward EV/FCF, below high growth profitable peers that routinely trade at 50x EV/FCF. — Seeking Alpha, "Finding Value in SaaS, Jan 2020"

""I was at a [CFM International] lessor conference with my CEO and we actually asked for a show of hands. This was two years ago. Has anybody in this room bought a standalone module? And no one raised their hand. So, I just don't believe that there's 82 standalone modules being sold. And if you tell me that that comprises, they sold 20 standalone modules in the quarter and the rest are three times the engines they sold, okay, I don't, that's not bad." — Source E, former CFM & GE senior engineer."

"In numerous instances in connection with the advertising, marketing, promotion, offering for sale, or sale of the right to participate in the Herbalife program, Defendants have represented, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that consumers who become Herbalife Distributors are likely to earn substantial income. In truth and in fact... consumers who become Herbalife Distributors are not likely to earn substantial income. — FTC v. Herbalife International of America, Inc., et al."

"“uncertain whether or not Yunfu EHang’s funding would be available” — Management Committee. "Our PRC subsidiaries have received various financial subsidies from PRC local government authorities. The financial subsidiaries result from discretionary incentives and policies adopted by PRC local government authorities. The discontinuation of such financial subsidies or imposition of any additional taxes could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations." — EH 2019 20-F, p. 32"

"TSMC is not buying the High-NA Lasertec tool... no confidence... it will be reliable product... I hear offline it's not very reliable... the A150... needs a lot of support, and it has a lot of issues... what I know is that TSMC is upset because the source is not working... the source does not have enough uptime... cost of service is too high... they are flickering... I heard that they failed... Lasertec probably must write off those tools. — Ex-KLA director of engineering / Former KLA executive"

""Director Smith serves as CFO of the Company. We believe that the unique financial information and control over a company's finances that is typical for a CFO should place the CFO in the position of reporting to and not serving on the board. It is crucial for the board to be in the position of overseeing the Company's finances and its reporting. This oversight is likely to be more complicated and less rigorous when the CFO sits on the same board to which they report." — Glass Lewis 2017 Report"

"“There's also a lot of pressure in Germany to make all those nice PowerPoint slides and press releases real, so there's a lot of pressure internally, But when you're talking with the experts, with the battery experts [at VW], there are still a lot of question marks. The experts on our side were quite skeptical. They've been working with the current technology for years, with pouch cells, prismatic cells, and they know what kinds of challenges and problems they had to go through.” — VW employee"

""I started my programming career at the Artificial Intelligence Lab at 16. My first programing project was working on Logo (with 8K of memory) for Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert." — Peter Chapman (LinkedIn profile). "I'm super duper excited to have Peter Chapman CEO of IonQ on the show today...Peter, going into your background, you're programming computers 16 years of age at the Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT, a super smart genius type character." — Aug 2021 interview with Peter Chapman."

"Allegion was spun-off from Ingersoll Rand in December 2013. As an Ingersoll Rand board member, Nelson worked with us to craft a shareholder friendly governance structure that is an important element in keeping our leadership accountable for performance as a standalone entity. Nelson Peltz, the Trian team and Allegion believe that good corporate governance and good operational results go hand in hand. The results speak for themselves. — David Petratis, Chairman, President and CEO, Allegion, plc"

"Allegion was spun-off from Ingersoll Rand in December 2013. As an Ingersoll Rand board member, Nelson worked with us to craft a shareholder friendly governance structure that is an important element in keeping our leadership accountable for performance as a standalone entity. Nelson Peltz, the Trian team and Allegion believe that good corporate governance and good operational results go hand in hand. The results speak for themselves. — David Petratis, Chairman, President and CEO, Allegion, plc"

"So, if they get 90% of the target, then 90% of the target would be paid out. — CFO on Deal Conf Call; We wouldn't disclose the terms of the service agreement other than to say that it's multi-year — CEO on Deal Call; During this period, operating results will be recorded in the company's net sales line, impacting many of our metrics as we detailed in the earnings release. For the remaining four months, FLAWLESS results will be consolidated within specific P&L line items — CFO Q1 2019 Conf Call"

"And we should like to mention that although the amount for the structural reforms and other adjustments is JPY 40 billion, the actual cash out would be, in other words, the actual expenditures would be 10% of that. And what we will be doing is the cash out itself will be in the amount of JPY 4 billion. And so therefore, for the remaining JPY 36 billion, it will be on a noncash basis. And in other words, what will be carried out are impairments, or we'll be taking out reserves. — Nagamori (CEO)"

"So you'll see us roll that out over 17,000 associates and employees across the UBS universe over the next coming weeks. So we feel pretty good about that. — CFO Reese, Evercore Conf March 3, 2022; It has been really exciting, this past quarter as we've seen the workstation go live, and it's been in beta the last year, but go live with 15,000 advisers, client service associates, home office associates and others and the feedback on that has been great. — CEO Gokey, Q3 2022 Conf Call May 3, 2022"

"July 2012: “Yahoo has 18,000 employees, and on paper it should have closer to 6,000 to 8,000, [Silicon Valley tech investor legend Marc] Andreessen argues. Every analyst has noted pretty much the same thing, and to date no CEO has had the guts to cut that deeply, even as each of them have been vilified for making cuts. Will Mayer be able to do what most outside observers say is necessary?” — Marc Andreessen; December 2015: “My view is that [Yahoo is] dramatically overstaffed” — Marc Andreessen"

""I wasn't getting the best results...it wasn't like a wow like they get with Xyrem. For me, the Xyrem is just so effective that it just pales in comparison to that. So, I relegated it pretty early on to my Xyrem failures or Xyrem intolerance...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."

"“...Understand that the founders will stop at nothing to succeed and that means lying to press, vendors, employees and glassdoor.” — Jul 27, 2019 - Teams Sales Manager on Glassdoor; “I think you would need to consult with a psychiatrist to really get at the root of this. I would say it definitely starts with the two founders.” — Former Executive Interviewed by Spruce Point; “But working there was the worst place that I've ever worked in my life.” — Aug 10, 2022 - Former Sales Manager on Tegus"

"“Not only did we have to get through the deal at a blistering pace, but I had to manage the process under strenuous circumstances. The deal was done while the annual audit work was underway as well as an accounting system conversion. And we continually had to deal with legacy matters within the finance and operations.” — Former Neurio VP of Finance; “This acquisition was one of the larger and more complicated technology M&A transactions in BC during the past year” — Jon Conlin, Fasken Partner"

""And I’m not sure another studio will ever achieve some of the numbers that we achieved. I mean, we got to the point where if a film didn’t do a billion dollars in global box office, we were disappointed…That’s an unbelievably high standard and I think we have to get more realistic." — Robert A. Iger, CEO & Director, November 2023; "I think the bar is now raised in terms of quality about what gets people out of their homes, into movie theaters." — Robert A. Iger, CEO & Director, November 2023"

""[Over] the last 10 years, our [Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)] has been higher than our refining or midstream peer sets. And we absolutely believe and are committed to ROCE as a key metric because we believe that we can accrete ROCE through disciplined investments, through disciplined asset dispositions and asset acquisitions. And we believe that ROCE is the leading indicator for increasing total shareholder return." — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, Wolfe Refining Conference, March 6, 2025"

"In the first quarter of fiscal year 2020, the Company initiated a restructuring plan (the “Q1 2020 Restructuring Plan”) as part of the Company's effort to realign its cost structure in both its go-to-market and engineering organizations. The Q1 2020 Restructuring Plan included reduction in force of approximately 90 employees within the sales, marketing, and engineering functions and was largely completed by March 31, 2020 with no material future costs expected to be incurred. — Forescout 10-Q"

"“Right now, there are Tesla's giga-factories, and there are hundreds of gigawatt-hours of worldwide production capacity for lithium batteries, conventional liquid electrolyte batteries, and all of that manufacturing capex is already installed, and it's already partially depreciated. So, just the depreciation costs alone on the capital equipment are already brought down to the point that it becomes so much cheaper to make huge volumes of liquid-filled lithium-ion batteries.” — Former employee"

"“There are very few technical challenges at iRhythm, but many procedural and political ones. Decision making is terrible. Inconvenient truths are hidden under Directors and hand-waved away to be fixed later - the result is significant technical debt (in my opinion) in the core products while trying to scale. These problems are surmountable, but not with current leadership, and not without holding middle-management accountable for performance.” — Engineering Lead, iRhythm, Glassdoor, 11/14/24"

"Reported EPS included a $0.75 ($18.7m) acquisition gain related to our earn-out accrual with Biotix... The Biotix acquisition was structured with a large potential earn-out component. While we are very pleased with the Biotix acquisition and expect their operating profit to grow by more than 35% in the first two years, they fall short of the earn-out level. As a result, we recorded a one-time, non-cash gain to reverse a significant portion of the original amount. — CFO Vadala Q4'18 Conf Call"

""This -- we've talked for a long time in our investor conferences in discussions around trajectory and continuing that trajectory. And both companies have been on pretty amazing trajectories. And so this is continuing the trajectory. So if you just think about Kanye West, bigger, faster, stronger, right, so we're delevering the balance sheet. This is going to be a straightforward integration." — C. Steven Guenthner, President, Principal Financial Officer, Treasurer & Secretary, Almost Family"

"“Nevro obviously through their actions knew that their metrics were flawed, because they were saying, ‘We have the panacea. It’s a car with five wheels and everybody with four wheels is behind.’ What does Nevro do now? They’ve introduced a four-wheel product and they’ve shut their mouth about their five-wheel and basically stopped selling it. They now offer not only a high-frequency IPG, but they offer a low frequency. They’re hypocrites. They’re liars.” — Longtime executive in the SCS space"

"I have never seen a person who used Nevro and say it didn't work. I haven't seen one....I have no financial connection with Nevro or any other company...Ask people who use Nevro and find one who says it doesn't work...There are doctors who are really against Nevro despite using only one implant but opposing it from beginning. They complain it's not working. It's just their opinion. It's never backed up with quality studies. We produce a lot of papers based on science. — Nevro loyalist KOL #1"

"LONZA scientist (cont'd) slammed the instrument: doesn't shorten development timelines or eliminate the need for traditional workflows, both key to its value proposition and $2MM price tag; capabilities are lacking for both cell line development and antibody discovery, BLI's two key target markets; cost is "prohibitive" and a "major shortcoming": not enough potential usage for ROI – a telling sign for BLI's TAM given Lonza may be the world's largest contract drug developer and manufacturer."

""We can't see selling, for example, our current hardware configuration of the starter kit, at an ASP of $850 to a broad population of patients who aren't going to wear it each and every single day. So the configuration needs to be easy to use, it needs to be small, it needs to be disposable and it needs to be inexpensive. We are not going to go in and charge people $200, $300 for a two week sensor session, so we have to develop economics around that." — Kevin Sayer – President & CEO, Dexcom"

"As a result of this external evaluation, we now believe that our total addressable market has doubled from $20 billion to $40 billion. When you couple this analysis with the success of our new stores, both in building out new markets and adding to existing markets, we now feel confident that our U.S. store count can successfully reach 900 stores over time. This is quite exciting news for us, and we look forward to sharing more details with you in the future. — CEO James Conroy, May 10, 2022"

""We're very excited, and I feel more confident today than I ever have about the future. I know that's something that everybody always says. But why do I feel that, I feel that because we have more control of these issues...there are going to be headwinds here and there. But what we can control, what we're focused on as a company, and what we're able to do, I think, puts us in a unique opportunity to further transform this business." — Peter Huntsman, Chairman, President & CEO, November 2021"

""as an important step towards its aim of having developed 50GW of renewable power by 2030" — BP Press Release; "exactly the right person at exactly the right time, a globally respected and deeply experienced leader in renewable energy with a proven track record of transforming and growing businesses" — former CEO Looney; "be available to address shareholders' concerns which have failed to be resolved by the chair, CEO or CFO or for which such contact is inappropriate" — BP governance (2024)"

"I joined the military right after high school. Actually, I was still 17. Didn't know what I was going to do with my life. So when I graduated, my dad encouraged me to join the military. Best move I could have made because they quickly teach you how to focus, how to become disciplined, and how to become a team. And I needed all that tremendously after I graduated from high school. And to this day, those are lessons that I learned and I still practice at this point in my life. — Brian Coffman"

"We’ll also continue to improve gross margins. The Company’s current gross margin is about 52%. We can earn a higher total company margin by achieving best-in-class margins in more categories and business units. Based on industry benchmarking, we believe that only about half of P&G businesses have gross margins better than their competitive peer set. As we get more of our businesses to best-in-class levels, we’ll increase our total company margin. — A.G. Lafley, Former CEO 2007 Annual Report"

""We're very excited, and I feel more confident today than I ever have about the future. I know that's something that everybody always says. But why do I feel that, I feel that because we have more control of these issues...there are going to be headwinds here and there. But what we can control, what we're focused on as a company, and what we're able to do, I think, puts us in a unique opportunity to further transform this business." — Peter Huntsman, Chairman, President & CEO, November 2021"

"[Over] the last 10 years, our [Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)] has been higher than our refining or midstream peer sets. And we absolutely believe and are committed to ROCE as a key metric because we believe that we can accrete ROCE through disciplined investments, through disciplined asset dispositions and asset acquisitions. And we believe that ROCE is the leading indicator for increasing total shareholder return. — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, Wolfe Refining Conference, March 6, 2025"

"I think for soybean and corn trading, it's going to be challenging. It's not that Bunge plus Viterra will be 1+1=two. 1+one would be 1.5, to be very honest, because there were overlaps. I know Viterra operation in Brazil very well. I think most places where Viterra operated, Bunge will reduce because Viterra would trade with a lot of commercials, companies that Bunge, Cargill, and ADM would not trade with. They would definitely reduce volume, especially for the initial years. — ADM Director"