Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"U.S. in 2013, we estimate that the construction of green buildings will be roughly about 45% of the total constructions of commercial buildings. In '16, it will increase to about 55%, 60%.... So as you can see, very, very well positioned within our Building & Construction Systems to, how could I say, capture the U.S. market recovery, right, in the next 3 years. — Olivier Jarrault, 2013 Investor Day"

""Bribery was Siemens's business model," said Uwe Dolata, the spokesman for the association of federal criminal investigators in Germany. "Siemens had institutionalized corruption." — The New York Times. "Siemens' then-corporate culture seemed openly tolerant of bribes, helping staff to feel they were 'not only acceptable but implicitly encouraged'." — Graham Dietz and Nicole Gillespie, The Guardian"

""Starting in 2016, we also took measures to manage the storage footprint of certain long-inactive Basic users, freeing up additional storage capacity. Specifically, we closed the accounts of certain Basic users who had not engaged in any activity on the Dropbox platform in the last year and did not respond to multiple e-mail inquiries from our inquiries from our inactivity." — Amended S-1, Feb 2018"

"In one meeting with three FGD executives from an FGD producer, we mentioned that RINO generates 35% gross margins. The result was comical. Each face registered palpable surprise (not quite shock), which then became expressions of confusion as they turned to each other while asking “35?” After a couple of seconds, the confusion subsided and was replaced with slight nods and barely perceptible grins."

"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...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. — 2008 20-F"

"During the Audits, the Engagement Partners failed to inquire about the business purpose of these related party transactions. For example, they failed to inquire why the Belize Affiliate’s retail customers could not have gone directly to Freedom with their trade orders, as opposed to placing their orders with the Belize Affiliate then passing those orders to Freedom. — PCAOB Release No. 105-2022-038"

"Zillow has lost all credibility in the eyes of brokers in the national housing market. Time after time after time, they've made promises to people within on the brokerage side that we're not going to go into the general brokerage. We're not going to go into iBuying. And they have just retreated back from their promises again and again and again. — Co-Founder And Broker For Triangle Real Estate Firm"

"“Until after we felt it, exactly. So, there was an issue and then the liver, the pump - we reported this to TransMedics and we were right. Our concerns were correct... the right lobe of the liver fell off... the response was ‘Wow, yours is the only center that is having these issues,’ which is an outright lie.” — Chief of transplant surgery at a major transplant center; high-volume TransMedics user"

"2U was founded in 2008. In over a decade since its founding, there is no evidence it has built a business of any value. Cumulative free cash flow since reporting in 2011 amounts to a loss of $225m. Over the same time periods, insiders have stashed in their piggy banks $148m from stock sales. Who is laughing to the bank? Now ask yourself, does 2U look like a vehicle to enrich insiders or investors?"

"Unlocking McGraw-Hill’s long-term conglomerate discount would result in ~$11 of value; Eliminating McGraw-Hill’s corporate cost structure would contribute ~$6 of value; Execution of McGraw-Hill’s authorized buyback would create $3.50 of immediate value; Bridging the remaining margin gap with McGraw-Hill’s peers (gap after collapsing the corporate structure) would create an additional ~$4 of value."

"Traditional remittance giants like Western Union and MoneyGram are struggling to keep pace in an evolving financial ecosystem increasingly shaped by stablecoins. According to Matt Siegel, Head of Digital Assets Research at VanEck, downloads of remittance giants apps have dropped significantly, with Western Union seeing a 22% decline and MoneyGram experiencing a 27% reduction. — Matt Siegel, VanEck"

"“I’d be asking management how much of sales is being driven by new products? You’re investing all this money in R&D. Where is it in the portfolio from the perspective of growth, share gain, and profitability? And in sustainable products, none of that fetches a higher margin. It’s good for the world and the environment, but is it helping your margin; I don’t think so.” — Former Avery VP For 7 Years"

"The high standards for which Stan Avery built this company continue to lead us forward in pursuit of excellence in everything we do. Today, they have evolved into what we call our value. Our credo that comes with the same promise of success. We are committed to perform with integrity, by acting honestly, ethically and honorably in everything we do. — Avery Dennison Company History Video, June 2009"

"…as we look at emerging markets, we just have not gotten comfortable that the moats around the business are anywhere close to as good as the U.S. and the credit quality of the tenants who are willing to co-locate or to sell their assets in those markets, at least up until this point has not been, to us, has not had the right risk reward ratio there. — Jay Brown, CFO, SVP Crown Castle International"

"“While she is an amazing performer, we actually don't see massive swings in our business from Taylor Swift, for the sake of everybody out there who will now freak out when one of these artists comes to or leaves town, the names that drive our business for the most part are George Strait, Garth Brooks, Morgan Wallen sort of the more traditional western artists.” — Jim Conroy, Q1'24 Call Aug 3, 2023"

""The majority of our anticipated 2011 CapEx is related to capacity required to support growing demand for K-cup portion packs." — Larry Blanford, Q1 2011 earnings call on February 2, 2011. "We expect the majority of our $650 million to $720 million in planned 2012 capital expenditures will go to scaling our portion pack production capacity" — Larry Blanford, Q3 2011 earnings call on July 27, 2011."

"“I don’t know that there’s any one place really sticking out. IDT has a great reputation for quality and being reliable, and a lot of people stick with them because of that. Some big companies just already have GenScript in their ordering system, and it’s hard to get people to make changes.” — Executive recently at IDT, a key Twist competitor; currently employed at another synthetic biology player"

"widespread accounting violations — SEC. "pushed employees to maximize end-of-quarter revenue, yet failed to devise and maintain sufficient internal accounting controls to accurately record revenue." — SEC. "improperly under-reported certain expenses" — SEC. "engaged in two additional practices over the course of several years that systemically overstated inventory and understated expenses." — SEC."

"For AOL Time Warner, in the long run had they gotten AT&T Broadband, it would have been strategic brilliance. — Saul Hansell and Steve Lohr, The New York Times, December 21, 2001; For TWX, we believe this was a tough asset from which to part, given their already strong foothold in cable networks and Comedy Central's attractive demographic reach. — Jessica Reif Cohen, Merrill Lynch, April 22, 2003."

"And good rock isn't everywhere. It doesn't exist everywhere. But permitting is much more difficult than it was 15, 20 years ago or even less. I mean it is changing every day with what local governments and people in general, society of general is willing to allow. So, permitting is becoming much, much more difficult. — Tegus Interview, Former BU Controller At A Leading Public Co. Aggregate Company"

"I, Danielle Lesser, a paralegal with the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, LLP, attorneys for Petitioner, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., hereby certify that on April 23, 2014 I caused to be served true and correct copies of the following documents via overnight mail on counsel for Respondent, Daniel J. Becka, Law Offices of Daniel J. Becka, LLC, 30 North LaSalle Street, Suite 3010, Chicago, Illinois"

"“As an agent, Dianguan serves as the Jifen’s sales agent in selling Jifen’s advertising solutions to second tier advertising agents, the end advertisers are the customers of Jifen as they specifically select Qutoutiao to display its advertisement and the performance obligation of Jifen is to provide the underlying advertising display services. Dianguan collects advances from end” — Qutoutiao, Inc."

"In order to distinguish between contamination and true bacteremia, a total of three to five blood culture sets should be sufficient. — Blood Culture guide. Q. How is your product different from the Pheno system? A. Similar technology, also phenotype. Major differentiation is capacity, drastic difference is that we have positions for 12 blood samples, continuous loading. We have — QuantaMatrix rep."

"Mr. Müller, you have just made some remarks about Muddy Waters. I believe that, for me at least, that will be a principal theme today. But allow me to say something by way of introduction. The victims of such attacks are those who leave themselves open to attack. I believe that, having conducted this business in the way that you have, resembles network marketing, of about 50%. — Mr. ten Doornkaat"

""What you have seen us do, quite frankly, is a bit opportunistic around that DVMT stock" — Dell CFO, 12/8/16; "We believe that the tracking stock will provide an opportunity for previous EMC shareholders to continue to benefit from the performance of VMware" — Dell CFO, 9/7/16; "we use those proceeds [from VMW sales] to then buy DVMT [which] has been very good." — Dell Investor Relations, 6/20/17"

"Red Lobster's business continued to decline through fiscal year end, and based on industry trends, the declines were expected to continue for an extended time — Darden Press Release. The management team believes that each of these issues are temporary in nature, correctable, and that they have plans in place to return the business to historic levels of profitability — Red Lobster Debt Memorandum."

"“the layers race has ended” — SanDisk; “Overall, a good thing for us. It allows us to go after more of the disk market. One of the things that's very different this time around is that these – this round of NAND reductions is going to make flash, especially with our products on the QLC side with FlashArray//C and S much more competitive with pure disk-based products.” — Pure Storage CEO Giancarlo"

"Contract and customer acquisition costs, consisting primarily of sales commissions, are incremental and recoverable costs of obtaining a contract. These costs are capitalized using the portfolio approach and are amortized over the expected period of benefit, which is the estimated life of the technology (determined to be approximately 7 years) provided in the underlying contract. — PWSC FY23 10-K"

"Red Lobster's business continued to decline through fiscal year end, and based on industry trends, the declines were expected to continue for an extended time — Darden Press Release. The management team believes that each of these issues are temporary in nature, correctable, and that they have plans in place to return the business to historic levels of profitability — Red Lobster Debt Memorandum."

""On behalf of all long-term owners of the Company, we encourage you not to expend resources on a proxy campaign designed to do little more than entrench Arconic's board and managers. Such a campaign, at best, will result in a needless waste of corporate resources. At worst, it will cause the Company to continue to underperform with its current managers." — First Pacific Advisors, February 6, 2017"

"Based on the 2023 AGM proxy filing list of companies used as a reference for compensation benchmarking purposes. These are companies “that are in our industry or have similar lines of business, are competitors for our executive talent, are large, complex organizations with global reach and / or similarly sized from a revenue and market capitalization perspective” — BlackRock 2023 AGM Proxy Filing"

"To hear CareDx tell it, AlloSure is the long sought-after silver bullet for rejection diagnosis, with the potential to “revolutionize the treatment of kidney transplant patients.” It can help physicians “detect rejection of a donated organ earlier and more accurately” than traditional blood-based measures of kidney function and “reduce the use of invasive biopsies.” — CareDx (marketing materials)"

""Mosquito sterilization offers new opportunity to control chikungunya, dengue, and Zika" — World Health Organization (WHO). "State-of-the-Art USDA Facilities Keep Invasive Pests Out of the Country" — US Dept of Agriculture (USDA). "For over five decades the SIT has been a major subject of the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture" — Int'l Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)."

"“Delta Pulls Outlook as Trump’s Trade War Squeezes Air Travel” — Headline. “United Airlines Gives Two Profit Scenarios: ‘Impossible to Predict’” — Headline. “American Airlines withdraws 2025 forecast on murky economic outlook” — Headline. “JetBlue Withdraws Outlook, Expects Soft Demand” — Headline. “Southwest Airlines joins rivals Delta, United in cutting flights, scrapping forecasts” — Headline."

"“this is our big one...we have 1500 pediatric endocrinologists in the country and had 1100 people there...this was their big moment...I had no discussion to notice any vibe. Put it this way, no one talked about it and said wow, we're really excited for this new indication. No one did that”; “this really hasn't been a major topic.” — Pediatric oncologist, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)"

"Хотел бы уточнить о возможности размещения четырех детей из ДНР и ЛНР в вашем отеле 22-27 марта 2026 г. для размещения их в семьи. Милые девочки возрастом 14-17 лет. Красотки! Трое - сироты, у еще одного ребенка где-то родители на Украине. У всех удочерение на финальном этапе, их уже ожидают семьи. С каждым ребенком будет сопровождающий в номере. Подскажите, пожалуйста, доступные варианты и цены."

"Competitors are fast playing catch-up to Stryker. J&J and Globus Medical are in the process of commercializing their new robotics systems this year. Smith & Nephew is highlighting key points of differentiation. Meanwhile, Zimmer which entered the market in 2017, already has 600 units in the field. Compare this with Stryker's 1,500 units which took 18 years since Mako Surgical's founding in 2004."

"If a superior transaction at fair value is not available within a short and defined time-frame, then we urge the Board to pursue our Value Optimisation Plan, which is designed to unlock: (a) Capricorn's intrinsic value of 315 pence per share in the near term; and (b) a further 85 pence per share over the medium term resulting in total value of up to 400 pence per share for Capricorn shareholders"

""Recall that our Pika and Neurio acquisitions enabled us to bring an efficient and intelligent energy saving solution to the market in December called PWRcell, which we believe will position Generac as a key participant going forward. Q1 represented the first full quarter of commercial shipments of PWRcell units at scale, which met our relatively high expectations." — CFO York, Q1 2020 Conf Call"

""Instead of eliminating the accounts receivable acquisition reserves after the allocation period (presumed to last no longer than one year), URI left the acquisition reserves on its books and commingled acquisition related accounts receivable reserves with operating accounts receivable reserves, enabling the company to offset improperly post-acquisition bad debt expense" — SEC URI Complaint 2008"

"It's not just Amazons Frontline ; it looks like Frontline from a lot of stores for some reason is NOT working now! Always used Frontline for years , now I ended up at the vet to get something that really works now Nexguard! I gave them a one star for the past ! Never again ! Fleas are no joke , about lost my mind with the fleas when I finally realized it wasn't working ! — Amazon Customer Review"

"“What’s different [for Southwest] vs. some of the smaller domestic airlines is that Southwest has the network depth & breadth, balance sheet and brand to pivot quickly. Unfortunately, they have been slow to move, while industry costs ballooned. Given the lack of pivot, the revenue outcomes for Southwest have, frankly, not been acceptable in the current environment.” — Melius Research, April 2024"

"So basically, when you join, I cannot leave you like this... a blank. We have to give you some fans. We have to give you some followers... If you join the platform and go live, nobody will give you money. Correct. Do whatever you can, but no one will. — Former Bigo India executive. For Bigo, only about 30-40% of the viewers are real and about 60-70% are bots. — Former Bigo Middle East executive."

"The TICO Board and SC (i) confirmed that the offer price still "significantly deviates" from expectations and must factor in the risk of price fluctuations due to increasing share price of the stakes held by TICO in TMC, Aisin, Denso and Toyota Tsusho; and (ii) requested that Fudosan "substantially increase" the offer price to safeguard minority shareholder interests — TICO/SC Negotiation Record"

""The restricted stock units and stock options vest 6.25% on March 15, 2023 (the "Vesting Date") and the remainder of the restricted stock units and stock options vest at a rate of 6.25% on each quarterly anniversary of the Vesting Date. Vested shares will be delivered to the reporting person as soon as administratively feasible following his separation from service with the Issuer." — CEO Form 4"

"During 2015, China, Russia, and Brazil accounted for 18% of our sales to external customers and declined 11% in local currencies as customer investments have slowed due to a variety of economic factors. In particular, Chinese market conditions continue to reflect overcapacity in certain end-user segments and a reduction of credit availability for many local Chinese customers. — Mettler 2015 10-K"

"“Porch provides ERP and CRM software to a wide variety of home services companies. Those companies can pay us with typical software fees or we really encourage those companies to pay us by providing us access to their consumer, to their homebuyers, where we then generate B2B2C transactional revenues as we help those consumers with key services for their home.” — Porch's CEO At Gateway Conference"

"this is a contamination nightmare, like there are lots of places for things to get in. You do have the ability to switch out the tubing and things like that. So, it's good in that respect. But it was something that was always a big concern, at least for us when we were taking cells off the instrument. Are they going to grow and end up contaminated? — Leading academic institution/ex-BLI scientist"

"And we see that probably as maybe better than some of the other news in the distribution space largely because of the levers that we can pull still around price optimization and as importantly, around our exclusive brands. Those products have dramatically higher margins than our average and they continue to grow at a much, much faster rate than the overall business. — CFO Trunzo, Q4'23, Feb 2023"

""We want to give our customers an easy experience while they move through every point of their travel journey, and the airport is a big part of that," said Kim Cisek, American's vice president of customer experience. "Introducing this option will help customers move more seamlessly from the airport lobby through TSA security to enjoy the next step in their travel." — Kim Cisek, American Airlines"

"“As far as serious cardiac events, we did talk about pulmonary edema at the visit, and she even said something about giving people a handout and how to recognize edema. And I was just like, "huh!" I would expect something transient, but I wouldn't expect a permanent edema, to be honest....” — Pediatric endocrinologist at a Delaware academic center with eight endocrinologists and ~50 PWS patients"

"I think it's like November of '19, it became available...and when that hit the door, I mean, as soon as I heard that it was approved, I called the rep and found out who it was. I wanted to know everything I could about it. I read everything I could, and then literally a couple of days later, we just started putting as many patients as we could on Wakix. — Physician and Harmony speaker in Alabama"

"“What’s different [for Southwest] vs. some of the smaller domestic airlines is that Southwest has the network depth & breadth, balance sheet and brand to pivot quickly. Unfortunately, they have been slow to move, while industry costs ballooned. Given the lack of pivot, the revenue outcomes for Southwest have, frankly, not been acceptable in the current environment.” — Melius Research, April 2024"

"Lead outside director William H. Cunningham, has been a board member for 22 years. Seven have served for more than a decade. In other words, they’ve remained in place, gripping their seats with what George Orwell referred to as “prehensile bottoms,” throughout the company’s period of declining customer service and during its scheduling disaster. — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, January 2023"

"“It a total scam. Spent hours completing tasks in games and none of them registered.... Can't contact support either.”, “Doesn't work. It's just a !task scam.”, “It works for some. I made under $20 in about a month, when I tried withdrawing, they banned my account then asked for my driver's license and selfie. I declined my earnings because it's worth keeping my information safe.” — Reddit users"

"Хотел бы уточнить о возможности размещения четырех детей из ДНР и ЛНР в вашем отеле 22-27 марта 2026 г. для размещения их в семьи. Милые девочки возрастом 14-17 лет. Красотки! Трое - сироты, у еще одного ребенка где-то родители на Украине. У всех удочерение на финальном этапе, и уже ожидают семьи. С каждым ребенком будет сопровождающий в номере. Подскажите, пожалуйста, доступные варианты и цены."

""This reduction of the Import Tax diminishes the protection of the national industry and, if it comes along with the reduction of the tax benefit that we have today in the Computer Law, it may be big enough that there is no longer interest of a company, multinational company to produce in Brazil" — Rogerio Nunes, CEO of SMART Brazil and President of ABISEMI (industry association), June 12, 2019."

""It smells as if you let garbage out in the sun for a few days," said the Ladner resident, whose home sits about a kilometre away from an industrial composting plant." — Local News, Aug 2018. "By March 2020, the company must fully enclose its odorous sources, take that air and fully treat it," said Ray Robb, Metro Vancouver's regulation and enforcement division manager." — Local News, Aug 2018."

"I want to highlight Bigo Live. So Bigo Live actually has been profitable in the past 1 to 2 years already. And actually, their profitability is... used to be good enough to support Likee's development. But very recently, we have more aggressive campaign in terms of the Likee's investment since we actually see the better ROI from the user acquisition part for the short-form video. — CFO Bin Jing"

"RESOLVED, that stockholders request that the Board adopt an annual election policy for directors, requiring each incumbent director... to deliver to the Board a letter of resignation effective at the next annual meeting of stockholders. — Elliott Proposal 6. Elliott's lawsuit further exhibits its lack of transparency and preference for theatrics over engagement. — Phillips 66's April 24 Letter."