Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"“For lungs, it's more of the fact that we don't see a use for OCS. We use a different device that's static cold storage and the lungs are much more resilient than the heart... It's called Lung Guard.” — Veteran transplant administrator at Massachusetts General Hospital; “hearts tend to get boggy and fluid overloaded and congested on the pump…you don't want to keep the heart too long on pump.” — Veteran transplant administrator at Massachusetts General Hospital"

"“And to then not have a harder endpoint. With a reduction in hyperphagia, that as an outcome is not really measurable...there's tons of problems with that score...I would have expected that if hyperphagia went down, we would see, as in the beloranib study...weight went down as well. And we didn't see that in this study. I'm not quite sure what's going on there.” — Trial investigator; endocrinologist; one of the most published authorities on PWS and hyperphagia"

"The purchase price for this acquisition totaled $92,678. The remaining amount consists of a contingent consideration of $3,004 which is contingent upon meeting certain performance metrics. Since the initial purchase price allocation was estimated, contingent consideration has been reduced by $4,000 and trade and other payables have increased by $650 and those adjustments have been reflected as an adjustment of $3,350 to goodwill. — Nuvei Q2'21 Financials, p.9"

"“All the other publicly held restaurant companies that have shifted business models are QSR chains, but we argue the common ingredient to all of their successes was not their industry-defined segment, but their decision to shift their cultures and structure to support franchise growth. Before significant investments are made supporting company-owned restaurants, a fresh perspective at the Board level could benefit shareholders” — Chris O’Cull, Keybanc, 2/7/17"

""The boots on the ground are not really motivated differently than the c-suite. They want to perform well and get paid for it. Give each plant targets that are tangible. Plaster the targets up all over the plant. Pay out bonuses when they are achieved. This may sound overly simplistic, but implementing this across each plant takes a real commitment and good ol' fashion elbow grease. PCC is great at this. Arconic is not." — Chris Ayers, Nominee for New Arconic"

"[G]o back a few years ago when we went to more countries, more places, we got out of balance on the top line. We went hard on the top line and what happened is we started to have real profit issues. We got overextended, overinvested in some countries.... Then we went, I think, pretty hard the other way on costs. We went through cuts and cuts, many of us around the world were reorganizing, trying to work at cost. — David Taylor, August 3, 2017 Employee Webcast"

"Certain corporate expenses, as well as certain centrally managed expenses, are allocated based upon budgeted amounts in a reasonable manner. Because the Company compensates the management of its various businesses on, among other factors, segment profit, the Company may elect to record certain segment-related operating and non-operating expense items in Other rather than reflect such items in segment profit. — Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. FY 2022 10-K"

"is almost convinced that this is not a business model that will be very sustainable in the next ten years...I think it'll come back to the more traditional one — Continental Executive. Our timing for the true redundant technologies which are needed for L4, our SOP [start of production] is not now, it's down the road, so we keep on being a little surprised when Aurora is saying “hey it's SOP now.” We think that it's more like years down the — PACCAR Executive."

""On capital expenditures, we roughly spend $600 million a year on CapEx, and we really focused that CapEx on what are the things that are going to make sure that we are driving future efficiencies for Stryker. These include IT systems. These might include upgrading manufacturing equipment so we can drive in cost savings. It's really prioritizing that CapEx that is going to really contribute to the overall model." — CFO, Shareholder / Analyst Day, Nov 18, 2021"

"We look at all different options. We've looked at contributing into the pension plan. We've looked at joint ventures. We've looked at just selling it out right to developers. We've looked at can you sell it to a REIT. We're looking at anything and everything, but at the end of day it comes out of the economics and we want to maximize the value for our shareholders and to do that it's going to take a little bit of time. — CFO at Jefferies Conference (Aug 2018)"

""it has been done in Europe for 20 years...over the last two years, Vanderbilt was the pioneer in using this technique" — Transplant surgeon at Vanderbilt. "For each organ that you recover with TransMedics, it’s almost $100,000. NRP is $3,000, and with $3,000 you can recover the heart, lung, liver, kidney, and pancreas...so $3,000 versus $300,000 if you want to recover all the organs. TransMedics cost is ridiculously high." — Transplant surgeon at Vanderbilt."

""velocities that are produced by [...] eVTOL aircraft could be as two to three times those that are produced by conventional helicopters that have the same weight" — UK CAA study. "If technology is an unstoppable force, aircraft certification can feel like an immovable object" and "For investors, this should be a cautionary tale: technical ambition without a clear path to certification is a recipe for delay, disappointment and financial loss" — Adrian Norris."

"“I think while Applied Water and Water Infrastructure segments have scale in these commodity businesses, they are in solid shape and not huge investment, but I think the challenge with Xylem overall is how do you get margin expansion when you have two large segments where there is not a lot of margin expansion potential in those businesses. That is the biggest question; can you get growth and margin expansion faster then the market?” — Former Xylem Executive"

"“I just don’t think that they’re bringing in the right type of people to fix those things. But is their array a boat anchor, so to speak? Yeah. If you can’t fill up the chip, it’s going to be really hard to create such high-value product that amortizes that chip over how many genes or pools you’re going to get. If you use half a chip or a quarter chip, you’re going to lose money because each of those things is really expensive.” — Ex-senior executive of Gen9"

"“We’re in a very aggressive hiring spree in Wilsonville” — Emily Leproust. “the production site should be fully up and running in January, Twist CEO Emily Leproust said in a Tuesday interview.” — Local Newspaper. “are complete and the equipment is in place...the equipment is brand new and underdoing various quality checks currently” — Local Newspaper. “once we have that, we’ll be able to start taking orders and ship product, Leproust said.” — Emily Leproust."

"Lasertec's light source is "not a well-controlled process...it was painful but we would get some light...if you choose a bad technology you just can't just get there...DPP has inherent issues." — Senior Intel Executive; "How To Lie With Statistics." — Scorpion Capital; "there was definitely a lot of frustration around" — Ex-Lasertec field service engineer; "he got banned from a couple of meetings for blowing up on people" — Ex-Lasertec field service engineer"

""[There is a] GM for each one of these groups, all have their own P&L, all have their own bonuses... all of these GMs are incented based on their own business. They don't really care all that much about the other functional capabilities... they are paid on their small slice of the Net Promoter Score for their own unit." — Former VP of National Accounts, Product Management; "[N]othing talks to each other." — Former VP of National Accounts, Product Management"

""We will have, by next year, $8.5 billion revenues..." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, May 1, 2015; "Well, I mean we've shown you also in the Investor Day..." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, January 11, 2016; "And I mean, as I said before, there is a ramp-up curve that we are seeing in the second half..." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, July 11, 2016; "And currently, on the airframe components side, we're going through a phase of destocking..." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, October 11, 2016"

"“The A951, which really is a bonding – is the bonding for the Ford F-Series, which really allowed – enabled Ford to go all aluminum allowing for the benefits that we're already seeing here in GRP.” — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, Arconic Earnings Call, January 31, 2017; “At the request of automakers, Alcoa Inc. is making its patented Alcoa 951 bonding process available to competitors who also supply aluminum to the auto industry.” — Automotive News, December 9, 2013"

""Our weight accounted for 70% of the total [performers], and any of the names that were mentioned on the platform, everyone knew they were from our company," — a senior talent manager. "It's like this," he told our investigator. "plainly speaking... because Mr. Li's [Chairman David Li's] support for our company is so great, all of our three channels were provided by Mr. Li for free. We did not spend any money [to buy them]." — Anonymous investigator source."

"I think, in general, plant-based proteins have been in an oversupply situation for the last roughly two years. I don't have recent data on supply and demand for soy protein isolate, soy protein concentrate, or pea. In general, because of the lack of growth in the plant-based meat sector, for which the large players built a lot of capacity, all of those commodities are finding themselves in an oversupply situation — Former Bunge Executive Interview, Oct 2025"

"Congrats @adp on reaching an amazing milestone of 10m users on #mobile platform - huge for #hrtech industry! - jasonaverbook. ADP Demonstrates Why Service is Core Differentiator at #ADPMOTM - Gary Bragar. MyPOV - When you have the data and #Bigdata skills - you can do amazing things. Today @ADP Pay Equity Explorer - Holger Mueller. Our research finds 41% of orgs use 3 or more systems for Intl Payroll - looks like @adp can handle it all #ADPHCM - Mark Smith."

"“one way of getting the good stuff, so to speak” — Mass General physician; “the transplant administrators...they’re addicted to the volume”; “if we can increase our lung volumes by, say 40 lungs...we’re a tier one OPO and that’s how close the margins are as far as being in compliance.”; “if I do 10 transplants, one or two deaths can shut down the program...but if I do 100, then I have a lot more leeway...the money is funny money.” — Transplant surgeon, Utah"

""But here's the problem. Here's the problem. A lot of physicians and families are so focused on weight loss for good health reasons that when they look at the study and don't see the weight loss, it causes them pause because of the expense with this...So, once the GLP-1 became available, a lot of physicians targeted that way to help with weight loss. And we're seeing a lot of positive results with that." — Formerly in a senior medical affairs role at Soleno"

"Using the Wayback Machine, we see that Chronogolf has gone through three iterations of its pricing plan. Initially, customers could get any of its plans for free. In exchange for using its tools, it would ask for a set of golf games which it would promote and sell online on its marketplace. Its most popular promoted “Eagle” plan was $299.99 per month. At the time of acquisition by LSPD, we see that its comparable plan was offered at $250 per month in 2019."

"Article 2: Defines “pyramid selling” as an “an act by which an organizer or operator seeks for unlawful interests, disturbs the economic order and affects the social stability by recruiting persons, calculating and paying remunerations to recruiters on the basis of the number of persons a recruiter has directly or indirectly recruited or the sales performance, or asking the recruiters to pay a certain fee for obtaining the qualification for participation.”"

"The subsidiaries of New Oriental China, which were registered as private schools (the “school-subsidiaries”), are subject to income taxes determined in accordance with The Law for Promoting Private Education (2003) where those school-subsidiaries registered as private schools not requiring reasonable returns (similar to a not-for-profit entity) are treated as public schools and are generally not subject to enterprise income taxes. — EDU FY2011 20-F, p. 47."

""What we have done with the Board is we said, listen, now is a perfect time for us; we are out 120 days. Let's look at all of our margins and see if there are areas we could get a lot more effective. So, leaning a process out from early days of design to where it might be today, leveraging technology that was not available perhaps in the past, using our capital appropriately for that technology I think is important." — Steven Anenen, CDK Global, Former CEO"

""In fact, there’s an old saying, ‘It’s like it’s 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration’ — it might be 99.9% in the case of battery cells. You’ll see a lot of announcements — this cell breakthrough, that cell breakthrough, this technology breakthrough, and say, ‘Okay, well, why can’t they just make a lot of them?’ It’s because the scaling up of the production process is much harder than moving something out on a lab bench." — Elon Musk, Nov 24, 2020 interview"

"Reflexis is a high-growth, recurring-revenue business with sales of $66 million in 2019, which doubled over a 3-year period. We've known each other for quite a long time. Reflexis has been a premier ISV partner of Zebra's. And we've been in dialogue with them about this transaction for some time. And in terms of customer concentration, Jim, the asset has a low level of concentration of sales towards a few customers. — Former CEO and CFO Q2'20 July 28, 2020"

""UniFirst continues to lack a detailed, cohesive, publicly-articulated strategy for returning the business towards mid-single digit % revenue growth and high teens % EBITDA margins. We have written in the past that UniFirst's decision to reject Cintas' unsolicited takeout offer 'puts the shortest route to maximum shareholder value creation in the rearview mirror.' Today's results suggest that the alternative path may prove bumpy and winding." — J.P. Morgan"

""Also, incentive compensation increased $3.7 million or 7% in 2013, due to the increase in Sotheby's profitability relative to prior years. In 2014, management expects that full-time salaries will increase by approximately 7% to 8% due to the full-year impact of last year's strategic headcount and salary increases as well as targeted salary increases expected to take effect in 2014." — Patrick McClymont, CFO of BID, Q4 2013 Earnings Call, February 27, 2014"

""the Company believes that it is important for context to advise the Staff that it began in 2014 to offer broadly to its customers the choice to use its blood diagnostic equipment and associated consumables pursuant to subscription agreements providing for a five-year term, in lieu of obligating its customers to purchase outright the Company's blood diagnostics equipment at the inception of the arrangement." — Heska SEC Correspondence Letter Dated 11/18/17"

"“The biggest one that stands out to me is just this weird way that they are utilizing their staff without an explanation and a complete lack of transparency as to what is happening on many levels. One of my close colleagues was told by one of the TransMedics pilots that he was told by Waleed to not talk to the specialists...they are intentionally keeping people in these dark silos so that they don't have a grasp of what's going on.” — Former OCS Specialist"

"“the chief commercial officer had no experience in rare disease...does that tell you anything?”; “everybody looks at 1 in 100,000 and says oh well, that’s still a pretty good subset if we get 50% of it...but when you really look at the data and fully understand what subset of that you may get, it just becomes a much smaller number”; “so yeah, maybe as much 10% to 15% but I don’t think it’s beyond that.” — Formerly in a senior medical affairs role at Soleno"

"“They did not show anything – I am really skeptical about that source from Isteq or from the Russians. As is, it would not work. It's nothing but a lab prototype, slightly more than an idea. There is some hardware around it, but I don't think that it's doable...it's difficult. It's not a surprise that they have a lot of problems with that source as well. It's a very difficult technology” — Leading figure in the development of Cymer/ASML’s EUV light source."

"“Well, I think they made an effort to move into the international market about the time we made that decision to move into the small cell market. We chose the U.S. business being the best for wireless infrastructure. They, I think, looked out and saw that the tower business is one of the best businesses ever and they would like to take that to different geographies. I think both of those decisions are really good decisions.” — CEO Jay Brown, November 2017"

"Translation (emphasis added): In the framework of short-term obligations - controlled or controlled person, significant influence As of December 31, 2020, the Company reports obligations for the company CPI FIM SA due to unpaid interest on the loan in the amount of 2,146,000. CZK (2019 - CZK 1,890 thousand) and for the company CPI FIM SA due to real cash pooling in CZK and EUR, totaling 17,724 thousand CZK (2019 - by thousand CZK). — Muddy Waters Research"

"[...] the proponent has made multiple misguided, incorrect and contradictory criticisms of BlackRock that are rooted in its disagreement with proxy voting decisions made by BlackRock’s Investment Stewardship team (“BIS”) on behalf of the Company’s clients. This includes instances where BIS did not support the proponent’s campaigns as BIS did not consider doing so to be in the best long-term financial interests of our clients. — BlackRock Proxy Filing 2024"

"We believe our strong financial results are a reflection of our consistent and disciplined culture of innovation and reinvestment, creating a differentiated business model in the hard surface flooring category, as evidenced by the following: eight consecutive years of double digit comparable store sales growth averaging 15.3% per year (and averaging 16.5% per year for fiscal 2012 to fiscal 2016), with a 19.4% increase in fiscal 2016. — 2017 IPO Prospectus"

"“Phillips 66 has been pursuing a strategy for many years that emphasizes and grows midstream assets alongside its refining business, despite evidence that this structure isn’t delivering value for shareholders relative to the company’s more streamlined peers. A stronger board would have questioned why these disparate businesses – which trade at different multiples, trapping shareholder value and diluting management focus – belong together.” — Gregory Goff"

""Net cash provided by operating activities was $15.7 million this quarter compared to $11 million net cash provided in the prior quarter and net cash provided by operating activities was $11.9 million in the year ago quarter. Increase in cash was mainly a result of improvement in net profit and a decrease in accounts receivable. For the year, we generated $33.4 million of cash from operating activities versus $6 million in 2017." — Q4'2018 Conference Call"

"[...] the proponent has made multiple misguided, incorrect and contradictory criticisms of BlackRock that are rooted in its disagreement with proxy voting decisions made by BlackRock's Investment Stewardship team ("BIS") on behalf of the Company's clients. This includes instances where BIS did not support the proponent's campaigns as BIS did not consider doing so to be in the best long-term financial interests of our clients. — BlackRock Proxy Filing 2024"

""Progyny's biggest con is that it only focuses on infertility. It is unclear how it will fare with companies that want an integrated family benefit." — Benefits Consultant, Willis Towers Watson, Spruce Point Interview, 11/21/22; "...Progyny has really honed in on IVF...whereas the other guys are more diversified and it's more of a family planning kind of service and not just like a fertility benefit." — Benefits Lead at Technology Company, Tegus, 11/17/22"

"As we discussed earlier, just 4% of men over 70 have prostates above 100g, and our research found that Aquablation is most competitive versus MISTs and other resective procedures for larger prostates, above 80-100g. Thus, even if we assume 10% of active patients have large prostates, 9.6 million patients, and a 2% annual intervention rate, that implies only 19,200 of the annual 192,000 estimated annual BPH interventions are “best suited” for Aquablation."

"CCME Rep: The situation is just what I’ve told you. Say for example we have 1,000 vehicles, 1,000 is the number we quote to outsider. But I have only quoted 500 vehicles to you, because these 500 vehicles are already signed with contracts and installed with devices. The other 500 vehicles don’t have devices installed, so the number I quoted to you is the actual number, installed with devices, but our company has asked us to claim based on 1,000 vehicles."

""And under the watch of Bill Caesar really done a great job of putting in multiple disciplines with that business in transforming that business really over the last 7, 8-years." — Patrick Dovigi, GFL CEO. "disjointed operating footprint and lower margins" — Moody's. "WCA will likely experience significantly lower organic volumes during the second quarter and potentially even later on, which could cause total revenue to contract for the full year." — S&P."

""Since his release from prison in May 2012, MILNE has paid approximately $500,000 of the $5.25 million of disgorgement that was due. Chief Judge Hall found that, based on MILNE’s income and expenditures on luxury services, he had the ability to pay much more. The Court had previously continued the hearing on multiple occasions to provide MILNE the opportunity to make additional disgorgement payments, but he repeatedly failed to do so." — Chief Judge Hall"

""The new system we're deploying today is able to do things no other quantum computer has been able to achieve...the holy grail...." — Chris Monroe. "The new hardware features 32 perfect qubits with low gate errors, giving it an expected quantum volume greater than 4,000,000." — IonQ Press Release. "In a single generation of hardware, we went from 11 to 32 qubits, and more importantly, improved the fidelity required to use all 32 qubits," — Peter Chapman."

"Restaurants face supply-chain risks, both social and environmental, which can have tangible financial consequences. Animal welfare is a rising concern, backed in some cases by government regulation. Meeting these rules could inflate costs; failure to do so may cause reputational damage. In addition, sourcing agricultural products may become more difficult amid extreme weather, with crops at risk to drought and floods. (04/22/22) -- Bloomberg Intelligence"

"Beijing Jiyuan Shengbao International Trading Co. is the only distributor of the famous brand Anta (China) in Beijing and is ANTA’s self-operated retailer in Beijing. As a part of Anta, Beijing Jiyuan Shengbao International Trading Co. focuses on retail sales of “Anta”, “Fila”, and (other Anta) brands in the Beijing market, and has become the leading sportswear retail enterprise in the Beijing regional market. — Beijing Fujian Chamber of Commerce article"

""kind of an endless negotiation...to try and convince Lasertec to improve their performance...to try to convince them to change their performance, the quality." — TSMC Executive; "it's already two-thirds, and I know it continues to increase"; "the big thing is the light...for production, for productivity, and for economic considerations, KLA performs better than Lasertec in TSMC." — TSMC Executive; "it's not a tool to support production" — TSMC Executive"

"So we've gone from roughly 2,500 at the start of the plan, 2,000, right in that range, to -- we're somewhere in the order of 7,000 to 8,000 total when we combine what we've done international expansion and also growth in the North America markets. — Kevin Wilson, Barclays Conference March 2021. And so, that's where we've been able to go from hundreds of customers in 2013 to 7,000, 8,000, 9,000 customers today. — Kevin Wilson, Stifel Conference June 2021."

"their prices are higher than what we pay for our own planes that we contract privately. ... I estimate it's around $7500 to $8500 per hour. — One of the top liver transplant surgeons in the world, based at a leading Midwest academic center. ... a much more reasonable price because it’s not associated with OCS. ... they’re not buying the jets…they’re using charters just like we use currently. — Cardiac transplant surgeon at a major Midwest academic center"

"“you can see our team walking out and getting in the car and their team walking out and getting in their car, and we drive to the airport together, and everybody gets onto their own aircraft, and we charter two aircraft, and that’s how we get to Reno...and then two planes come right back side by side, but TransMedics is in their plane and they pass all that cost to the transplant center.” — Executive at a leading West Coast OPO, longtime industry veteran"

"“if they’re sending their liver team...they just blanketly refuse to do it...they tell them if you want us to recover your kidneys, it’s going to be $3,000 - extortion....just to tell you about their business practices, it’s all back and forth favors...they threaten to leave the kidneys in the body and risk two people not being able to come off dialysis because they want to charge these crazy fees.” — Executive at a leading OPO, longtime industry veteran"

""US telehealth revenues, will jump from $174.5 million last year to $707.9 million in 2017," and "the United States leads telehealth growth worldwide, and has 75% of the world's telehealth patients" — IHS, Feb 2013. "The World Market for Telehealth has yet to reach its tipping point. Poor implementation, low reimbursement levels, and lack of physician support are some of the barriers that have held telehealth penetration at a slow rate." — IHS, Dec 2013."

"“In no way does this do anything to open up passenger carrying flights in the United States… It is not a significant milestone.” — Mark Moore. “Now in terms of this first of its kind permit for periodic operations of passenger grade. Okay. So really realize what it says. It's for passenger-grade, it's not saying for carrying passengers.” — Mark Moore. “EHang does not currently have an EASA Type Certificate” — European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)."

"MagnaChip recognized revenue on sales of incomplete or unshipped products...and delayed booking obsolete or aged inventory to manipulate its gross margin. The SEC detailed how Magnachip “overstated revenue for nearly two years in response to immense pressure...each quarter to meet revenue and gross margin targets that had been communicated to the public...a panopy of accounting tricks to artificially meet financial targets.” — SEC press release, May 2017"

"Spruce Point believes that consensus estimates for future aspiration catheter revenues are not analytically robust. Yet, as with most companies, the market interprets these estimates as a good indicator of future sales, and as perhaps the most educated, rigorous, and analytically complete assessment of future performance. Accordingly, we believe that Penumbra shares are currently valued according to estimates which likely feature a high degree of error."