Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"Special committees play a key role in the new guidelines [in resolving the problem of conflict of interest and information asymmetry]. They also exert the utmost effort to maximize the benefit of minority shareholders, just like the situation that could be achieved by the merger between two independent partners where there is no conflict of interest — Riwa Sakamoto, director of the corporate system division at Meti."

"Rentokil Initial and Terminix are significant players in the attractive, non-cyclical and growing pest control industry. The global pest control market, estimated to be worth c.US$22bn in 2020 (51% in North America, 20% Europe, 21% Asia), has delivered a total market CAGR of 4.7% over the last five years and is estimated to grow at between 4.5% and 5%+ over the medium term. — Terminix and Rentokil Deal Press Release"

""Every trust department in the United States panicked," explained this 35-year-old hedge fund manager, "the stock just poured out" — 35-year-old hedge fund manager (Warren Buffett); "As described in other sections of this report, the extremely complex warehousing situation has not interfered with the continued growth and attainment of record highs in our main lines of business" — American Express, 1964 Annual Report"

"Generac's recent investor presentation promotes 11 regional partnerships, two of which it promoted by issuing a corporate press release. Boston Solar issued a press release promoting a partnership. Based on our field research, we find only six (6) still sell Generac's products. Even worse, at two of the distributors marked in red below, we find serious concerns being raised about the business ethics of the partner."

"“The turnaround time was probably 30% of the time because something needed to be reworked. When they really needed something, they had to have it complete, that was probably 10% of the time, and people would be upset by it not being complete just because they needed to have everything; they needed to have all the genes to start their experiment.” — Ex-employee in senior product management and sales leadership roles"

"Ballard will contribute approximately $1.0 million for its 10% interest in JVCo. Under the terms of the agreement, Ballard has the right to appoint one of the three JVCo board directors and Ballard's CEO was appointed to the board of JVCo effective as of closing. Ballard has veto rights over certain key JVCo decisions and has no further obligation to provide future funding to JVCo. — Ballard Press Release, Oct 2016"

""You simply don't achieve results like this without a high functioning, deeply engaged board." — Bob Pease, Independent Director, March 28, 2025; "Although it is common operating practice in the US to have the CEO also be the Board Chair, and for a past CEO to hang around on the Board, I feel they are both detrimental to a company in need of change." — Bob Pease, Written Assessment of Phillips 66, November 13, 2023"

"“The Company periodically provides customer incentive programs including product discounts and volume-based rebates, which are accounted for as reductions to revenue in the period in which the revenue is recognized. These reductions to revenue are made based upon reasonable and reliable estimates that are determined by historical experience and the specific terms and conditions of the incentive.” — Kornit 2016 20-F"

""You simply don't achieve results like this without a high functioning, deeply engaged board." — Bob Pease, Independent Director, March 28, 2025; "Although it is common operating practice in the US to have the CEO also be the Board Chair, and for a past CEO to hang around on the Board, I feel they are both detrimental to a company in need of change." — Bob Pease, Written Assessment of Phillips 66, November 13, 2023"

"MARK HUGHES: Vamos a decirles exactamente qué decir y exactamente lo que nosotros decimos. Quiero que tomen nota palabra por palabra. A pesar de que no estén de acuerdo con esto en este punto, sólo tomen nota. Cuando alguien les haga cualquier pregunta sobre nuestros productos, van a decir, “No sé respecto a eso”. ¡Escríbanlo! “No sé respecto a eso”. Y luego incluyen su testimonio personal o prestado. — Mark Hughes"

"“There’s a lot of gray area when it comes to how late declines are offered. That has certainly happened to me where I’ve been inappropriately skipped, and I had to call an OPO and say you can’t do that. That’s against regulations. That’s unethical; you can’t skip me without telling me. These things happen. What the recourse is for anybody is a tougher question.” — Transplant surgeon at a high volume academic center"

"“They enrolled some of the highest-volume transplant centers in their clinical trial and these were the main ones that were using them until the last couple of years where amongst our group of folks that we talk to across the country who are other high-volume transplant centers as well, there’s been a steady decrease in utilization of TransMedics.” — Transplant cardiologist at one of the top centers in the US/world"

"MARK HUGHES: Vamos a decirles exactamente qué decir y exactamente lo que nosotros decimos. Quiero que tomen nota palabra por palabra. A pesar de que no estén de acuerdo con esto en este punto, sólo tomen nota. Cuando alguien les haga cualquier pregunta sobre nuestros productos, van a decir, “No sé respecto a eso”. ¡Escríbanlo! “No sé respecto a eso”. Y luego incluyen su testimonio personal o prestado. — Mark Hughes"

"In December 2024, we completed construction of our high-volume aircraft manufacturing facility, ARC, in Covington, Georgia. We started production of aircraft at this facility in the first quarter of 2025 and plan to focus on building aircraft across our facilities in Georgia and Silicon Valley for use in testing and certification, as well as to support plans for early commercial deployment. — Archer Aviation Filing"

"it happens even more with TransMedics...it doesn't have enough blood supply...the reservoir....can be tight or the liver can be under pressure...a portion of the liver can get necrotic before or after transplant...if it happens after transplant, the outcome could be bad...it's reported only in the normothermic machine...I know for sure that happened...I don't know how many times....I know for sure that it happens."

"“We’d obviously welcome a substantive turnaround plan from Southwest… In our opinion, bona fide turnarounds often include meaningful changes in network composition, fleet overhauls, and revisions to business models. Management turnover is sometimes a component, as are changes in pricing philosophy… Unfortunately, we don’t believe Southwest is eager to meaningfully engage in such changes…” — J.P. Morgan, April 2024"

"The cost of revenue for our movie theater and traditional outdoor billboard network increased 101% from $28.5 million in 2007 to $57.3 million in 2008. The increase is primarily attributable to:...3) increased leasing costs associated with time we rent on movie theater screens as a result of an increase in the number of theaters we lease in our network from 10,930 in 2007 to 27,164 in 2008. — FMCN 2008 20-F filing"

""There are other oddities in Satyam's books, like fluctuations in the amount of unbilled revenue the company recorded. Unbilled revenue is work done for a customer but not yet invoiced. Analysts who follow outsourcing companies like to see unbilled revenue because it represents future earnings. But there is little documentation associated with the number, so unbilled revenue is easy to fudge." — NY Times, Jan 2009"

"I actually said that we really don't expect material synergies over the next two, three, four years because we do have a service agreement in place.... we're not calling or quantifying any synergies because we're focused on just - like Matt said, making them hit their $900 million earn-out and have the support that Church & Dwight would give and innovation that those guys would have — CFO on Deal Conf Call 3/28/19"

"Armor Holdings Products LLC has agreed to pay the United States $30 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly manufacturing and selling defective Zylon bullet-proof vests — U.S. DOJ. Armor Holdings employed no scientists and relied on Honeywell for scientific expertise — UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL (case number: 1:2008cv00961) (Document 209; page 10)."

"they would call and say, hey, would you be interested in this? And then someone says, oh yeah, I’d be interested in that, and then they say to the OPO, oh, so-and-so, the guy over in [readacted] is interested in this liver. They’re getting into the organ allocation business rather than just the organ recovery and preservation business. It’s definitely improper. — Transplant surgeon at a high volume academic center"

"I have more than concern about [cardiac risk]. In fact, I’m writing an article on it...there’s an article that’s going to be coming out that I’ve written on this trial...I’ve been asked to write my opinion on this trial in the medical literature...we still don’t have a clear understanding, even though the drug has been around since 1976. — Trial investigator and physician; one of the leading KOL’s in the PWS field"

"MICHAEL JOHNSON: Esta es una gran oportunidad de negocios. Tienes la oportunidad de tener independencia financiera y libertad. Lo puedes lograr al ayudar a la gente a cambiar sus vidas involucrándolos en un mejor estilo nutricional. Haciéndolos más sanos. Creemos en un estilo de vida saludable, activo, y estamos felices de que te unas a nosotros. Felicitaciones de nuevo y, bienvenido a Herbalife! — Michael Johnson"

"Attention all TEFL & ESL teachers looking to work abroad teaching in China...SinoEdu is a Chinese chain school that also uses the alias brand of SinoJ or Sino J. Do not believe anything they tell you even if they put it in your contract. They exploit foreigners and do not pay what they promise and force you to work unpaid overtime. If you dare to complain they threaten to get you — Warning posted on April 2, 2018."

"We find troubling inconsistencies regarding the employee size of TASK's workforce in the 2016 period. Two sources confirm that TASK had between 4,500 and 5,000 employees at the end of 2015. Later, TASK said it hired 5,300 in 2016 to grow to 7,000 employees. However, this would have implied it started with 1,700 employees in 2015, well below the 4,500 – 5,000 claimed earlier. Did TASK experience sizeable turnover?"

"We value REZI as if it were two separate business using the valuation multiple implied by the trading comps on the previous slide. We believe that the businesses should trade at a discount to peers given lingering legacy operational and financial reporting issues, along with growing complexity from recent M&A. We see 25% - 50% downside risk and expect REZI to underperform the technology and home services sectors."

"Practically speaking, we believe it is a stretch to call the new fecal analyzers a new piece of diagnostic equipment. In reality, the veterinary staff are still required to undergo a sample preparation process that must be done correctly to ensure accurate test results, and the equipment is actually just an automated microscope that uses algorithms to scan the slide for pre-determined image evidence of parasites."

"The KOL further pointed to key omissions as a red flag, where data was collected but not reported: "they ran all these behavioral measures and didn't publish any of them...that's odd to me...[patients] have behavioral issues...it's not just hunger...they collected data for that...I know they did...if people are less hungry or less irritable...and having less outbursts...that data would be in there, and it's not.""

"A Global Foundries executive conveyed color “from colleagues that I’ve spoken with” – “their factory floor for finished goods is full...a substantial amount of finished goods inventory that’s either not passing [evaluation by customers] - customers have deferred shipment...but from colleagues who have visited, they said they have literally no space left on their final inspection bays before the inspection ships.”"

"I would tell you that during Q2, Mako sales were quite robust. And we supported our customers through a variety of financing options. And then lastly -- the last bit of color I'll say is that just given the circumstances, we definitely are seeing a shift to financing more deals than we have historically experienced, and I fully believe that, that will continue throughout the rest of this year. — Q2 2020 Conf Call"

"I think a lot of clinics are beginning to explore that idea because that's essentially what Kindbody has started to do. They can go out and sell themselves directly to employers instead of going through the benefits manager, negotiating a deal with them rather than having the middle man. I think it's definitely being tested right now. — Endocrinologist at Leading Fertility Clinic, Spruce Point Interview, 11/29/22"

"“Sort of every KOL was saying the device isn’t working. We had this one doctor in New York who implanted 13 Nevro systems. He removed 10 of them within a year. Nevro saw that a lot of these doctors were going away. They saw that their sales reps, like me, were leaving and the number one reason was because the therapy wasn’t living up to expectations.” — Former Nevro district sales manager, now at a key competitor"

"One of the note purchasers party to the Note Purchase Agreement was Royod LLC (“Royod”), an entity wholly owned by Raymond Dong, an employee in the User Ecosystem Strategy and Operations department of FF, whose loan to Legacy FF was funded by Ocean View, an entity formerly controlled by Mr. Jia and now wholly owned by the spouse of Ruokun Jia, who is the former Assistant Treasurer of the Company — FFAI Disclosure"

"I would like to inquire about possibility of hosting four young beautiful girls from Donetsk People's Republic, Russia (14-17 years old). They will be in transit to a modelling contest and since they are orphans because of the war in Ukraine they are being transferred with the model agency employees. Can we ask for four rooms, 2 persons in each? Do you have a spa and a swimming pool? What kind of bed do you have?"

"I would like to inquire about possibility of hosting four young beautiful girls from Donetsk People's Republic, Russia (14-17 years old). They will be in transit to a modelling contest and since they are orphans because of the war in Ukraine they are being transferred with the model agency employees. Can we ask for four rooms, 2 persons in each? Do you have a spa and a swimming pool? What kind of bed do you have?"

"I would like to inquire about possibility of hosting four young beautiful girls from Donetsk People's Republic, Russia (14-17 years old). They will be in transit to a modelling contest and since they are orphans because of the war in Ukraine they are being transferred with the model agency employees. Can we ask for four rooms, 2 persons in each? Do you have a spa and a swimming pool? What kind of bed do you have?"

"I would like to inquire about possibility of hosting four young beautiful girls from Donetsk People’s Republic, Russia (14-17 years old). They will be in transit to a modelling contest and since they are orphans because of the war in Ukraine they are being transferred with the model agency employees. Can we ask for four rooms, 2 persons in each? Do you have a spa and a swimming pool? What kind of bed do you have?"

"After observing problematic restructuring accounting adjustments and financial presentation methods that we believe artificially boost Adjusted EPS and Free Cash Flow (two of the three key components of management Annual Incentive Plan), we observe that Avery Amended and Restated the Annual Incentive Plan on Jan 1, 2020 to greatly expand language around the clawback provision for fraud or intentional misconduct."

"This is simply not true. This cash would only be available to pay principal on debt and pursue further acquisitions in an imaginary world where this cash had not already been spent on severance, restructuring and other exit costs as well as transaction and integration costs, which left them with only $4.3 million of real free cash flow in 2018 – enough to pay down a whopping 0.13% of the principal on GTT’s debt."

"My Administration would have also sold the government’s common stock in these companies at a huge profit and fully privatized the companies. The idea that the government can steal money from its citizens is socialism and is a travesty brought to you by the Obama/Biden administration. My Administration was denied the time it needed to fix the problem because of the unconstitutional restriction on firing Mel Watt."

"My Administration would have also sold the government’s common stock in these companies at a huge profit and fully privatized the companies. The idea that the government can steal money from its citizens is socialism and is a travesty brought to you by the Obama/Biden administration. My Administration was denied the time it needed to fix the problem because of the unconstitutional restriction on firing Mel Watt."

"[2023 profit sharing was] definitely underwhelming. And it's probably going to continue that way for another year or two... We have a little bit of a revenue problem right now, right?... We also have a lot of cost creep on the expense side of the house, right? So in order to have profit sharing, you have to have profits. And so those profits have been shrinking. — Southwest Captain Damian Jennette, February 2024"

"Shareholders need to be satisfied that the peer group is appropriate and not cherry-picked for the purpose of justifying or inflating pay. In general, we believe a peer group should range from 0.5 to 2 times the market capitalization of the Company. In this case, Glass Lewis has identified 10 peers outside of this range, which represents approximately 62.5% of the peer group. — Glass Lewis, Hess Proxy Paper 2011"

"[2023 profit sharing was] definitely underwhelming. And it's probably going to continue that way for another year or two... We have a little bit of a revenue problem right now, right?... We also have a lot of cost creep on the expense side of the house, right? So in order to have profit sharing, you have to have profits. And so those profits have been shrinking. — Southwest Captain Damian Jennette, February 2024"

"[2023 profit sharing was] definitely underwhelming. And it's probably going to continue that way for another year or two... We have a little bit of a revenue problem right now, right?... We also have a lot of cost creep on the expense side of the house, right? So in order to have profit sharing, you have to have profits. And so those profits have been shrinking. — Southwest Captain Damian Jennette, February 2024"

"“The bottom line is that there is no compelling valuation opportunity in separating our retail business, and that any potential separation will cause loss of integration synergies, additional cash needed to maintain appropriate balance sheet strength, increase volatility in the remaining business, and, we believe, result in long term value disruption.” — Gary Heminger, Former Chairman & CEO of Marathon Petroleum"

""The reality is that there are several hundred new entrants in the market. Basically 99% or more of these brands will not survive, but the problem is that they do take market share." — Pierre Pringuet, CEO of Pernod Ricard. "In the US what did happen is you’ve had a lot of competitive entry; I think there are over 200 brands or items that came into the market in the last two years" — Ivan Menezes, CEO of Diageo."

"[2023 profit sharing was] definitely underwhelming. And it's probably going to continue that way for another year or two... We have a little bit of a revenue problem right now, right?... We also have a lot of cost creep on the expense side of the house, right? So in order to have profit sharing, you have to have profits. And so those profits have been shrinking. — Southwest Captain Damian Jennette, February 2024"

"“if you're hyperglycemic, I don't know how it's going to get better by going up more slowly on the dose or then you hold it a lower dose...is that okay?...somebody did bring that up, and they were like, oh, we just go up more slowly...I'm not sure...by that point, it may be too late...because if you already have type 2 diabetes and you're making it worse, are you really helping the problem?” — Endocrinologist #4"

""So we’ve got Alex [Fala] who is our FO. He’s been with me for just on a year now and he’s stepping into the role as acting CEO to free myself up to go out and find that global CE that we’re looking for; who knows how to grow a business from that $20 million of revenue to over $100 million of revenue, and in quick order." — Vaughan Rowsell, Exit Interview: Vaughan Rowsell steps down as CEO of Vend, Idealog, 2016"

"We can calculate Terminal Value in two ways. First, we can calculate Terminal Value using the Perpetuity Growth Method. This method assumes that the company keeps operating and generates cash flow forever into the future. Second, we can calculate Terminal Value using the Terminal Multiple Method. This method assumes we sell the company to an acquirer at the end of our forecast period. — The Core Technicals Guide"

"[2023 profit sharing was] definitely underwhelming. And it's probably going to continue that way for another year or two... We have a little bit of a revenue problem right now, right?... We also have a lot of cost creep on the expense side of the house, right? So in order to have profit sharing, you have to have profits. And so those profits have been shrinking. — Southwest Captain Damian Jennette, February 2024"

"In 2019, after merging the Trading & Logistics segment within CAAP - Met, AMR reverted back to allocating freight revenues among segments. Shouldn't the total freight revenue of $363m have been allocated to the new CAAP – Met? Why did 2018 freight revenue decline from $363m to $341m without explanation, but total coal revenues were unchanged? Lastly, how did the new CAPP- Met segment increase revenues by $328m?"

"Documents show Waterpik’s gross margins were 47.7% - 49.1% pre-acquisition, and the CFO said he expected 200 - 300bp gross margin expansion. Fast forward to early 2019, the CFO’s recent comment that gross margins are now “on par” with the company’s gross margin (pre-tariff), indicate that margins have contracted lower in this product line closer to 44% - and this even after price increases announced in Q3 2018!"

"All five methods for estimating the amount by which Lasertec is fraudulently valuing inventory – and therefore earnings, as well as the magnitude of the impairment charge it is trying to avoid – arrive at roughly the same figure, one that is devastating and indicates the degree to which its stock price has been based on an illusion: an inevitable 65-70% write-down of its $1.1B / ¥162B of inventory as of Mar '24"

"All five methods for estimating the amount by which Lasertec is fraudulently valuing inventory – and therefore earnings, as well as the magnitude of the impairment charge it is trying to avoid – arrive at roughly the same figure, one that is devastating and indicates the degree to which its stock price has been based on an illusion: an inevitable 65-70% write-down of its $1.1B / ¥162B of inventory as of Mar ’24"

"The SportsBusiness Daily website reported that the league has taken an equity stake in Sportradar, which is based in Switzerland, and that the US arm of the company - Sportradar acquired SportsData in December 2013 and has since rebranded it Sportradar US - will be paying around US$5 million per year for the right to distribute and license NFL data over the next four years. — sportspromedia.com (April 21, 2015)"

"Notwithstanding the detail in the approved plans set out in condition no.4, prior to the commencement [of development] of any above-ground structure, precise details of that structure shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. The submission shall include the colours and finishes. The development shall be carried out in accordance with agreed details. — Court Judgment Excerpt"

""Darden remains behind the competition when it comes to implementing technology at restaurants. The use of tablets is no exception – none of the company’s brands currently have tablet technology...We think tabletop tablets with payment capabilities could help with long wait times, especially at Olive Garden where 90+ minute waits are common on Friday/Saturday evenings." — Janney Capital Markets, August 26, 2014"

"(b) An advertisement containing an endorsement relating the experience of one or more consumers on a central or key attribute of the product or service also will likely be interpreted as representing that the endorser's experience is representative of what consumers will generally achieve with the advertised product or service in actual, albeit variable, conditions of use. — Section 255.2. Consumer Endorsements"