Callouts & quotes from 902+ activist slides

"I would say, it's hard to say, Liam. I mean, it will come down to what opportunities there are. We want to maximize value on for those -- for that stake. The lockup is until July 2. I don't think anyone should expect us out in the market selling these shares on July 3. We will work very closely with Bunge and Greg Heckman. He's running a great business. — Glencore CEO"

"Spruce Point observes that insider stock sales began around the time the CFO and CRO departed. CEO Movchan also started selling stock at year end 2023 with two large blocks of 100K and 150K at $10.00 per share. In addition, the new 10-K reveals that CEO Movchan enacted a 10b5-1 program on March 14, 2024 to enable the sale of up to 400,000 shares through Dec 31, 2024."

"Why does Stryker claim tuck-ins are easy? Why did it take almost a year to close the small “tuck-in” acquisition of SafeAir, a pencil that sells in boxes of ten? Why hasn’t Stryker said much of anything about SafeAir after completing the acquisition? Did Stryker not want to inform investors that it issued a recall with the FDA shortly after closing the acquisition?"

""By positioning ourselves as a "one-stop" environmental services provider, we plan to leverage our diverse service offerings to unlock potential cross-selling opportunities across our business lines. As we execute on our growth strategies, we will continue to leverage our scalable capabilities to manage costs and drive higher operating margins." — GFL Environmental"

"As one media consultant said, “It’s rather sad that AOL Time Warner couldn’t keep one of its most valuable brands in television like Comedy Central” — Media Consultant. “Companies like AOL are having to sell their best and most profitable assets in order to make a dent on the debt on their balance sheets. Nobody’s focusing on shareholder value.” — Bond Investor."

"The 70% Rule: In any given month, a Distributor must sell to retail customers and/or sell at wholesale to downline Distributors, at least 70% of the total value of Herbalife products they hold for resale, in order to qualify for TAB Team and to earn and receive Royalty Overrides and Production Bonus for that month's business. — Herbalife Sales & Marketing Plan."

"Spruce Point has identified many red flags as it relates to Aerojet’s meteoric share price appreciation since 2017. Its significant EBITDAP growth without corresponding cash flow growth should be evaluated relative to recent executive and director departures, along with heavy insider selling, a civil DOJ inquiry, and disclosure of federal and state tax audits."

"“Who wants to bring their family into a struggle to make it? Who wants to bring their family into an eventual deception?” — Stephan Gratziani, Current Chairman’s Club member. “[S]uccessful people in retailing in our business, it’s a very small percentage. . . . The majority of our people have a difficulty in selling products, in general.” — Stephan Gratziani."

"“Who wants to bring their family into a struggle to make it? Who wants to bring their family into an eventual deception?” — Stephan Gratziani, Current Chairman’s Club member. “[S]uccessful people in retailing in our business, it’s a very small percentage. . . . The majority of our people have a difficulty in selling products, in general.” — Stephan Gratziani."

""Who wants to bring their family into a struggle to make it? Who wants to bring their family into an eventual deception?" — Stephan Gratziani, Current Chairman’s Club member. "[S]uccessful people in retailing in our business, it’s a very small percentage. . . . The majority of our people have a difficulty in selling products, in general." — Stephan Gratziani."

"Sell-side promoters are divided on Zebra, and there is even one analyst with an underweight opinion and market perform rating and a $290 per share price target. We believe that even that is overly optimistic because analysts fail to conduct a rigorous forensic review of Zebra's recent acquisitions and financial reporting which suggests more issues lie ahead."

"“Who wants to bring their family into a struggle to make it? Who wants to bring their family into an eventual deception?” — Stephan Gratziani, Current Chairman’s Club member; “[S]uccessful people in retailing in our business, it’s a very small percentage. . . . The majority of our people have a difficulty in selling products, in general.” — Stephan Gratziani"

"If cross-selling has been such a major component of management's growth plan, then why is the Company failing to capture a greater share of customer wallet? PowerSchool contracts we were able to obtain show that in most cases, PowerSchool's share of school district budgets stays flat and even declines as a percentage of a school district's operating budget."

"Note that Nevro can only sell a permanent implant if the patient achieved 50% pain relief during the temporary trial period that lasts a few days, creating a powerful incentive for sales reps to bulldoze the patient into uttering the magic phrase, and creating a patient base in whom the device never worked and will eventually need to be explanted."

"Bristol Meyers employee #1 (cont’d): Slammed BLI system as not that new or innovative; has no value proposition for big pharma like Bristol; hasn’t enabled anything meaningful for them as a customer; no one at Bristol seems to care much about the technology; hard sell to scientists internally; already have similar capabilities “much more cheaply.”"

"Ex-employees elaborated on the lack of further opportunity in cell line development: already ran out of customers; already killed off the segment despite what they promote to investors; was always "a hard sell" as couldn't show their tool is any better than current methods; no incentive or ROI for customers to use BLI for cell line development."

""So we have a huge selling and service motion going on with Microsoft and -- our friends at Microsoft with their Azure Stack. And I think we've closed about -- in excess of a couple of hundred million dollars worth of business with them, and we have a very, very large pipeline that we're working.." — CEO Siebel, Wells Fargo Conf, Dec 2, 2021"

"Free cash flow growth should be a strong driver of equity valuation and sell-side analyst price targets. What we find is that Stryker's 2022E Free Cash Flow estimates have been contracting. Yet, not a single analyst has downgraded the stock, and in fact some brazen analysts claim shrinking Free Cash Flow merits a price increase and a "Buy"."

"The CEO has been selling stock more aggressively since shares were relisted in 2020. However, even more concerning is that just in the recent eight-month period from Feb 28th – Nov 11th CEO Liang has sold the most shares in recent history. His stock sales are mirrored by the CFO’s sales, who reduced his holdings for the first time by 70%."

""Our operating leverage was up 245 basis points year-over-year..." — Todd Gibbons. "This is one of our real focuses, delivering positive operating leverage and improving the operating margins of our company...And so you can see over the last 12 months, the operating margin has in fact, improved by 78 bps across the firm" — Gerald Hassell."

"Management of the resource is the key and should be privatised and the farmers/harvesters allowed to sell to whom they like and DEC becomes the auditor - this would at least give local companies a chance to buy wood from numerous rather than one source giving more local, grass root working people much needed income. — David Brocklehurst"

""Systems. Implementing a system of Salesforce took us four attempts. It was really complicated with all the resellers and all the different ways our different products are sold. And we bought two companies, so how do we integrate licenses for all those things in Salesforce? We spent a ton of money and failed many times." — Dax Dasilva"

""Although the specific findings and conclusions of the Committee, as advised by its legal and forensic accounting professionals, remain privileged, the Company announced that the Committee has informed it that the Committee is satisfied that the vast majority of the short sellers' claims were baseless." — China Integrated Energy Inc."

"“Overstock sells lots of products today where installation and assembly make complete sense from a customer perspective that they should be included,” said Matt Ehrlichman, CEO of Porch.com. Customers expect installation services for everything from furniture to light fixtures, all of which are sold on Overstock’s online marketplace."

"Aegon trades at a slight discount to its peer median. However, we believe the Company deserves a deeper discount due to the considerable operational risk that exists in its Americas segment; we do not believe the Company's sell-side analysts have given proper attention to the risk that WFG's MLM structure presents in their analysis."

"Porch essentially barters its software for leads, which it then sells, yet doesn't record the transaction in cost of revenues. Given the subjectivity and managerial discretion on placing values for exchanged services in barter transactions, they have often been heavily scrutinized by the SEC and are susceptible to accounting fraud."

"We will also be very focused on achieving a better return on invested capital for our retail businesses, in effect, getting more from our existing assets. And we will refocus on our automotive business. This Company had its beginnings in that business, our two founders selling tires and servicing cars. — 2009 Annual Report (page 3)"

"We believe sell-side targets do not account for the structural risks that exist in the Company due to Aegon's significant reliance on WFG to drive financial results, nor does it properly account for potential continued weakness in the international business or the potential for earnings volatility in the asset management business."

"Amazon, the most dominant retailer in the world, lists Califia Farms Oat Milk as its “Best Seller”. We believe Oatly has a poor product placement on the website and is being pushed farther down on search results according to our recent tracking. We observe that Oatly’s price per fluid ounce is $0.30 cents, or 3x Pacific Oat milk."

"Hao said that since China stocks have listed on the US stock exchange, there have been similar cases. He thinks that Muddy Waters short sells only after serious investigation, and does not make fictitious reports. Otherwise, the goodwill, which is accumulated over many years, would be destroyed. "But the truth needs" — HAO Junbo"

"Holy shit. No... I have.. ho... I ... really? Dude, I swear to god I must live under a rock because I had no idea how much that goddamn thing is. That's stupid. But then the drug companies can write whatever they want, right? They can sell it for anything they want. That's unbelievable. — Physician and Harmony speaker in Alabama"

"“I think they're selling below the cost of their product. They set their pricing based on assumed cost and the fact that they have cash to weather it. They put Gen9 out of business using that pricing... I don't think they're ever going to recover from that.” — Ex-employee in senior product management and sales leadership roles"

"“Who wants to bring their family into a struggle to make it? Who wants to bring their family into an eventual deception?” — Stephan Gratziani; “[S]uccessful people in retailing in our business, it’s a very small percentage. . . . The majority of our people have a difficulty in selling products, in general.” — Stephan Gratziani"

""It took me two months to get a call with IR, much less an independent director" — Foreign Buyside Analyst; "They need to do more to promote diversity... The current situation is not at global levels... (and) it would be good to see the benefits of diversity and inclusion reflected in the top line" — Domestic Sellside analyst"

"The article stated that “the Chinese authorities suspended the registration and approval of direct selling amid a nationwide crackdown on wrongdoing in the health products market”, and this means Morinda and other direct-selling companies in China are not expected to increase their presence in cities/provinces any time soon."

"Activist Investor Irenic Builds Stake in Forward Air — THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Activist Ancora Pushes Forward Air to Pursue Sale — THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Alta Fox Calls for Immediate Strategic Review at Forward Air Corporation — Alta Fox. Forward Air retains investment bankers to sell company, sources say — FREIGHTWAVES."

"With its own broadband service priced at a premium of as much as $10-$20 above broadband services provided by the MSOs and RBOCs, it became increasingly clear that any strategy predicated on reselling access services over another company's infrastructure in competition with the infrastructure owner would be challenging."

"It’s not just the deep-pocketed private equity firms, or the top 5 largest and publicly owned pest control companies, that are looking for acquisition targets. They also compete with mid-tier players that position themselves as a better fit for sellers as smaller, family-owned businesses where culture and people matter."

"But for ANTA and the Jinjiang companies, their development history is different. Because they started out in the business of making shoes, so in the market they could not find those distributors who would be interested and with the ability to sell with which they could cooperate (because their brand is weaker). — Mr. D"

"“there was uncertainty around how much we were relying on additional receivable sales, and there was uncertainty about how much we would sell in receivables. That’s the biggest change that is leading to this [updated guidance] and flowing that through speaks to the majority of the change in our GPU line item.” — Garcia"

"“But the reality is this is nothing special. It’s like any other biotech company that provides antibody engineering or library services. So, there’s not much of a differentiator. They’re really hard to sell, but with that many people [in sales], that’s why they do get business.” — Former Twist employee, director-level"

"We shouldn't use DCF if the company is fast changing and difficult to forecast. We shouldn't use DCF if we're selling the company from one private equity firm to another. In that scenario, an LBO model would be better. And we shouldn't use DCF for certain types of businesses, such as banks. — Financial Modeling Course"

"Many of the consumer-friendly offerings that helped Carvana rapidly gain share are no longer unique. For example, all of the “Three reasons to sell to Carvana” provided in e-mails to potential customers: firm no-haggle offer, fast payment, and multiple delivery options are now offered by multiple online competitors."

"Q3. Revenue growth guidance for 2017 of 9% was encouraging as the company announced its plans to sell a new product at Lowe’s this year and enter direct distribution in the UK. For a growth story that had stalled, the resumption of revenue growth is clearly an important sign. — Stifel Earnings Analysis - 8 Feb 2017"

"'Yahoo's asking for restrictions without offering information,' said a sector banker. 'An NDA is a two-way promise. The buyer agrees not to talk, and the seller agrees to disclose private information.' However in this case according to the banker, 'There's no quid pro quo' for Yahoo bidders. — CTFN, March 17, 2016"

"Spruce Point believes that the circumstances facing Premier are very similar: while the sell side believes that Premier’s above-market shareback rates can last indefinitely into the future, Spruce Point finds evidence that near-term catalysts could force Company economics back in-line with the rest of the market."

"KOL’s and ex-employees were remarkably consistent, across several dozen interviews, in explaining why Nevro’s sales growth collapsed – yet we failed to see one instance of device failures, lack of efficacy, and explants being asked about or mentioned in ~5 years of earnings calls or effusive sell-side reports."

"Thus, even though the Sponsor claims it is transferring equipment value to the Tax Equity, when one looks through the economics of the transaction, we believe it becomes clear that RUN is mainly selling assets that are not dependent on the homeowner's purchase of electricity once the FMV has been established."

"It appears CTC is more inclined to sell properties than it was in the past. In 2018 and during the first half of 2019, CTC drastically increased the value of sales. This is concerning given that CTC’s debt load has grown substantially over this time. We believe this is a sign the company is strapped for cash."

"Sell-side analysts are not exceedingly bullish on the stock: several analysts do, in fact, voice concerns regarding the sustainability of Hill-Rom’s sales growth, in addition to frustration with management’s frequent re-basing of core sales growth ("core fatigue," as it’s amusingly called on earnings calls)."

""I don't even want you to finish the phone call, I want you to hang up right now and just say I want to sell every share of Lucent because the combination of Lucent and Alcatel is going to be run by Patricia, Run Into the Ground, House of Pain, Train Wreck, Sell-Sell-Sell, Russo." — Jim Cramer, July 31, 2007"

"[Dauman] took a short-term financial gain beginning in 2011 by selling kids TV hits including SpongeBob to Netflix. That now appears to have backfired by encouraging young viewers to abandon Nickelodeon and other ad-supported channels and go online where they can watch shows whenever they want, without ads."

""In order for [refranchising to 90%] to create value requires...selling nearly 500 stores at multiples higher than we believe are achievable...[and] trading multiple expansion to levels significantly higher than demonstrated on a sustained basis by casual diners" — Alex Ware, Chief Financial Officer, 2/7/17"

""The number of large media buyers and sellers in the market is finite, and it could be difficult for us to replace the losses from any buyers or sellers whose relationships with us diminish or terminate. Because of these factors, we seek to expand and diversify our client relationships." — Rubicon 2017-2019"

"In the following presentation Citron will show how Inogen along with its distribution network through legal and illegal tactics are committing elder abuse to sell portable oxygen concentrators for the highest price without proper disclosure of benefits to seniors at the most vulnerable time of their life."

"This anomaly raises a number of questions, not least as to what is the true value of the assets? Why would MTN sell AMT 51% of the assets for just 42% of the value, it does not appear that they were desperate to do so as there would have been other bidders? Could this mean that the assets are overstated?"

"Their thinking wasn’t, ‘How do we innovate?’. It was, ‘How do we continue to cut this to the bone so we can sell it for as much as possible?’... ‘How do we play the game of just having enough resources to keep the lights on?’ The hope was, there was going to be one more [flip].” — Former MPLN Executive A"

"For many years, management has been diverting capital to share repurchases, up until recently when it levered itself to acquire Itiviti. Throughout its public history, insiders have been consistently selling stock. Total insider ownership has declined every year since 2016, down to just 1.6% from 3.5%."

"I have tens of thousands of people selling with us around the market today at -- with the Microsoft Azure team. I have 4,000 professionals selling with us at Google Cloud and Thomas Kurian. I have 12,000 people selling with us in oil gas from Baker Hughes. — CEO Siebel, Needham Conference, Jan 11, 2022"

"$LSPD is in fake it ‘til you make it mode, where they are cobbling together cruddy & extremely inferior solutions, hiding behind M&A that looks ok to investors FOR NOW. Not 1 investor can show me 10 of their e-comm sites that are fast, awesome looking, & brands everyone knows. — Tall Seller @TallSeller"