Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"“half of us trained at CHOP, we use a lot of diazoxide, and I even asked that question like, can you just use your garden variety diazoxide...they explain it's extended-release...okay, but you can give it a couple of times a day... everybody in endocrine is really familiar with diazoxide for hyperinsulinism...so, trying to understand the difference” — Endourologist #4"

""in the other condition we use diazoxide for, pulmonary edema is a massive concern of ours...the main adverse event that I would be worried about with this drug and the potential for that...difficult to predict who will develop that...personally, I would always be ordering echos on any child before and during treatment." — Trial investigator, pediatric endocrinologist"

""lightly regulated, private investment funds that use unconventional investment strategies and tax shelters in an attempt to make extraordinary returns in any market...these factors have given them a secretive and shady aura in the financial community." — Investopedia; "The Sleaziest Show on Earth." — Forbes; "the largest fraud in SBA history." — SBA inspector general"

"Generac lists PR-NA Industries as a Florida subsidiary. According to the Florida records the entity is active. However, according to its parent company in Italy, the entity has negative net equity and has been fully written down in previous years. If this is the case, why hasn't Generac recorded any impairment charges and why is it keeping an insolvent entity active?"

"We believe it's time for Stryker's failing business strategy to end. The Company needs to take a hard stance that management's blunders are no longer acceptable and that it's time to reposition Stryker from a growth by terrible acquisition story, to one committed to internal investment, fixing cost bloat, improving manufacturing inefficiencies, and returning capital."

"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."

""In closing, I wanted to emphasize that our business model and philosophy regardless of short-term volatility, we'll remain laser-focused on operational excellence, capital discipline, long-term shareholder value creation, and returning that value to shareholders while fortifying our balance sheet by continuing debt reduction." — Former CEO Mark Little, July 29, 2021"

""This consortium is so named because we are equal partners with Thales on this project... So we expect it to be very much a 50-50 partnership." — CEO Lance, Q2 2018 Conference Call. "Industry officials familiar with Telesat's LEO bidding process have said the company is all but certain to request an equity investment on the part of its major suppliers" — Space Intel."

""We encounter errors, door jams, cells not penning properly, bubbles—all of these little issues. The cells are not penning into the chip properly, for example. In other words, there's always something, and at the end of the day, for the most part, we tend to only be able to screen binders and not so much functional assays in the instrument." — Pfizer senior scientist"

"“And picking -- the tuck-ins are easy. Those -- we were good at that, and we'll keep doing those tuck-ins. But when we're talking about multibillion-dollar deals, then making sure we pick the right companies. And our track record has been pretty good so far, and I think we'll continue to be a disciplined acquirer.” — CEO Lobo, Morgan Stanley Conference, Sept 13, 2021"

"BEKE claims that as its market share of home transactions through its platform grows, this ballooning GTV will produce network effects allowing BEKE greater pricing power for fees and commissions. Management referred to such network effects as creating a “self-reinforcing virtual cycle of efficiency and stack scalability…” — BEKE, Q1 2021 Earnings Call, May 19, 2021."

"I don't like Waleed or a lot of their upper management...he's doing the fake it 'til you make it thing...this goes to show you what a fuck-face he is...he's so disingenuous... their company, from a corporate culture point of view, is dishonest, to be blunt, and I think their claims are exaggerated. — Prominent surgeon, Director of a leading academic transplant center"

"“I’m telling you, that’s where the problem started two years ago and they said that we cannot ship...they are not shipping because it’s a liability...I definitely understand why because they are not shipping...because they have problems with the source...the customers are delaying orders.” — Former KLA executive in a leadership role in their EUV mask inspection group"

"“We in IR have been agitating,” he lamented, “for the production of a DVD introduction to the facilities there but to no avail. I hosted an investor—a shareholder—who had come all the way from Switzerland to visit. He was extremely unhappy about being unable to get a look inside Fab-4A or to even see a video presentation.” — Lasertec Investor Relations Representative"

"AMR prominently promotes how valuable its 65% ownership in Dominion Terminal Associates (DTA) is to its export business, claiming export sales are primarily shipped through it. We will show how AMR gets all the benefits of owning and using the DTA, while avoiding any impact to its key performance metrics such as "cost of coal sales", EBITDA, and operating cash flow."

"Part II: Twist’s “DNA chip” narrative - 10,000X higher throughput and lower cost - is fraudulent, covering up a manual, labor-intensive, and fatally-flawed manufacturing process crippled by errors, bottlenecks, and pitiful yields – thereby driving gross margins we estimate to be negative, not unlike Theranos which claimed to run blood tests on its “chip” but wasn’t."

"We hereby inform you that Bluebell Capital is prepared to withdraw our proposal to amend the Bylaws (Item 6), subject to the following condition: BlackRock must irrevocably commit to adopting a policy – to be effective from BlackRock’s AGM 2025 - that mandates an independent Board Chair, with an announcement to be made to the market by April 15, 2024 to disclose it."

"We hereby inform you that Bluebell Capital is prepared to withdraw our proposal to amend the Bylaws (Item 6), subject to the following condition: BlackRock must irrevocably commit to adopting a policy – to be effective from BlackRock’s AGM 2025 - that mandates an independent Board Chair, with an announcement to be made to the market by April 15, 2024 to disclose it."

"We cannot reconcile REZI's acquired revenue from 2022 during the critical acquisition of First Alert. REZI also closed three other small acquisitions during this period and generally reported the revenue contribution from acquisitions to total and segment revenue. REZI implemented multiple restructuring programs in Q4'22 despite First Alert performing ahead of plan."

"We believe QuickBooks churns a high number of customers simply because micro-businesses have a high failure rate. Moreover, on the other end of the spectrum, companies that have matured and grown, arguably QuickBooks' best customers, churn as well because at some point they simply outgrow QuickBooks and need a more sophisticated or broader solution such as NetSuite."

""We'd like to see FCF funneled toward buybacks and not future franchisee acquisitions." — Brian Bittner, Oppenheimer, June 2016; "[W]e are less enthusiastic about Buffalo Wild Wings' emerging brand strategy of acquiring and growing other concepts....We are concerned Buffalo Wild Wings is bound to waste both time and capital" — Andrew Charles, Cowen & Co., April 2015"

""The investment from KKR is a strong vote of confidence in our vision, strategy, and continued efforts to increase growth and profitability. KKR is one of the world's leading technology investors with a deep understanding of our market and a proven track record of partnering successfully with companies to create value and drive growth." — CEO Aaron Levie, April 2021"

"Another question from Mr. Klein: Were any taxes connected with the acquisition and sale of shares - possibly all - by the Sambara Foundation incurred? If so, where were they paid for? After all, our company can't afford getting involved in a tax scandal. - We can't respond to this matter either as the company was not involved in this process. — Ströer AGM Transcript"

"We saw an accelerating trend of new users as we ramped up our awareness efforts during the second half of the year and pharmacy insurance coverage continued to increase including an emerging trend of seeing Libre granted preferred co-pay status versus competitive systems due to its compelling overall value proposition. — Abbott 4Q FY18 Conference Call (Jan 23, 2019)"

"“Against Engine’s ‘advice’ to not attempt a debt refinancing, and its hyperbolic posturing, the Company refinanced its debt on more favourable terms that materially reduced its debt service cashflows, staggered and extended its maturities, and saved the Company approximately CAD $20 million annualized in net interest costs.” — Dye & Durham Board (September 25, 2024)"

"I feel like it was the wrong decision to make. So when you're down in market share and you're down in volume because of competition, the last thing we need to do is take a price increase to try to, they're trying to make the revenue goals, but at the end of the day, you can't let volume erode to make your overall profit. — Former Monster Employee Familiar With Sales"

""[We] designed our mid-cycle methodology around the 2012-to-2019-time frame. You had cycles of strong margins and weak margins during that period of time." — Phillips 66 Investor Relations, March 14, 2024; "The biggest delta is in refining and well below mid-cycle refining environments baked into the '25, '26 outlook." — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, January 7, 2025"

""[We] designed our mid-cycle methodology around the 2012-to-2019 time frame. You had cycles of strong margins and weak margins during that period of time." — Phillips 66 Investor Relations, March 14, 2024; "The biggest delta is in refining and well below mid-cycle refining environments baked into the '25, '26 outlook." — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, January 7, 2025"

"「高開口数の極端紫外線が実現すれば、全てを短縮することが可能になります。KLAは5ナノメートル、3ナノメートル、2ナノメートルに関しては当社の193ナノメートル光学検査装置と8xxマルチビームマスク検査装置で十分対応できると思っています。そして、高開口数の極端紫外線が実現して、寸法が大幅に縮小してペリクルが一般化すれば、アクティニック検査装置を提供できます。この装置はもっと早くに実用化できたのですが、アクティニック装置は従来の装置と比べて一層複雑になるので、あえてこの道を選びました。時機を得た発売ができると確信しています。時間をかけてアクティニック技術開発を着実に進めてきました。高開口数の極端紫外線リソグラフィができるようになったら、私たちもそれに合う検査装置をご用意できると思っています」 — Ahmad Khan (KLA)"

"The fair value of the contingent value rights liability also increased during 2021 due to the achievement of a development milestone under the terms of the agreement with Merck, which is payable to the CVR holders, net of permitted deductions. This could result in potential milestone and royalty payments for the benefit of the CVR holders. — Chinook 2021 10-K, pg.78"

""The retail sale of Herbalife product is not profitable or is so insufficiently profitable that any retail sales tend only to mitigate the costs to participate in the Herbalife business opportunity." — FTC v. Herbalife International of America, Inc., et al. (July 15, 2016). Case No.2:16-cv-05217, Complaint for Permanent Injunction and Other Equitable Relief, at p.5."

""The retail sale of Herbalife product is not profitable or is so insufficiently profitable that any retail sales tend only to mitigate the costs to participate in the Herbalife business opportunity." — FTC v. Herbalife International of America, Inc., et al. (July 15, 2016). Case No.2:16-cv-05217, Complaint for Permanent Injunction and Other Equitable Relief, at p.5."

"When AMR eliminated its Trading & Logistics segment in Q2 2019, it was merged with the CAPP Met segment. We investigated to see how AMR would restate its historical financials by combining these two segments. In the 2019 Annual Report, we see that AMR restated the segment which resulted in the segment's coal margins magically increasing by 4.7% without explanation."

"Yundong's function is more about help them to find people, like looking for the operating and managing personnel. More about HR, help branch companies to find people. As to the specifics of the operations and channels, the decisions are made by the branch companies, HQ is to supervise the push the branch companies. Yundong is more about the managing HR and finance."

"If we adjust Amdocs' EPS for its percentage-of-completion items and 75% of newly-capitalized software, on the assumption that 75% of the change in the unamortized software account represents capitalized costs – we observe that Amdocs EPS could have been overstated by up to 15% if the observed percentage-of-completion items represent improperly pulled-forward sales."

"UEC's Hobson Processing Facility in Texas is a cornerstone of its marketing to investors and appears on the last slide of its investor presentation. In February 2023, UEC showed an image with a group of people touring the facility. However, according to Google Maps archives the facility sign was blank at the time and recent corporate filings indicate delinquencies."

"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?"

"After adjusting for improper add-backs, contingent consideration write-downs, and capitalized commissions (on a tax-adjusted basis for Non-GAAP Net Income), Spruce Point believes that FY19 Adj. EBITDA should be at least ~25% lower than Company-reported Adj. EBITDA, and FY19 Non-GAAP Net Income should be at least ~65% lower than Company-reported Non-GAAP Net Income."

""There has been an internal debate within the IRS for a number of years about whether the agency should issue separate guidelines for solar transactions... is the tax equity investor a real partner with meaningful upside and downside risk of a business or is it a bare purchaser of tax benefits or a lender earning essentially a fixed return?" — Norton Rose Fulbright"

"In consideration of the Services provided under this Agreement, the Partner hereby grants to GS: 2.1 an exclusive worldwide right... to collect, use, store, distribute, publish, adapt, supply, sub-licence and/or exploit data and statistics (including live scoring data and historical scoring data) in respect of the Competitions listed in section 3 ("Official Data");"

""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"

""With this return to normalcy, residential consumption has fallen back to its 2019 level and commercial consumption has risen to its prepandemic level as well. And as a reminder, historically in the water business, we typically see a natural decline of about 1% annually in water usage as customers change out older appliances and fixtures." — Year End 2021 Conf Call"

""the downside to Aquablation...is that it leaves a bloody mess inside the prostate when the water jets are done...There's no cautery or thermal effect, so there's no hemostasis. Every urologist has to go in there and basically open up a TURP set and transurethrally cauterize bleeders...You're adding costs." — Tegus Interview with Major Hospital Urologist, June 2024"

""The Authority's examination into Frontier's construction of its fiberoptic network, particularly with respect to underground installations in the public right-of-way, indicates that Frontier and its contractors have systematically failed to comply with applicable laws and, in doing so, have jeopardized the public safety." — CT Public Utilities Regulatory Authority"

"You see that very clearly in the mid and the downstream segment, but also in the upstream segment because there we are focusing on reducing costs as well as optimizing our asset base to get it lower on the cost curve. We have shown sustained improvement in productivity in all of the three groups and we intend to continue that. — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, October 9, 2012"

"Approximately 40% of the company's total workforce is located in low cost countries, including in China, India, Mexico, South East Asia, and Eastern Europe. Many of these employees are involved in assembly and manufacturing tasks, particularly in China and Mexico. Almost all of our employees in the United States, Canada, and China are employed full-time. — proxy st"

"Let me put it this way, they're not referenceable either; I can even share that. They're not happy, and they're not referenceable. One of their scorecard results, at the bottom, is a checkbox. Would you want to be a reference, a user reference? And they said "no." That was one thing that Berkeley Lights was the only vendor that actually stood out. — IQVIA executive"

"In closing, I wanted to emphasize that our business model and philosophy regardless of short-term volatility, we'll remain laser-focused on operational excellence, capital discipline, long-term shareholder value creation, and returning that value to shareholders while fortifying our balance sheet by continuing debt reduction. — Former CEO Mark Little, July 29, 2021"

"Auditing the Company's estimates of accrued receivables and the related accrued claims payable was complex and required significant judgment as the estimates were sensitive to changes in the significant assumptions, including management's assumptions regarding the lag between authorization date and service date, service changes and cancellations. — PGNY FY2021 10-K"

"Aerojet Rocketdyne is a world-recognized technology-based engineering and manufacturing company that develops and produces specialized propulsion systems, as well as armament systems. We develop and manufacture all four propulsion types (liquid, solid, air-breathing, and electric) for space, defense, civil and commercial applications. — Company Description Per 10-K"

""CLEAR makes the customer experience safer and easier, bringing predictability to the friction-filled airport experience. We are excited to continue our partnership with American Express. Together, we are committed to delivering the best experiences to our customers and members," said Kenneth Cornick, CLEAR’s President and Chief Financial Officer. — Kenneth Cornick"

"Number two, the TSA Digital ID solves a problem for the airline that CLEAR does not solve and that has nothing to do with the checkpoint. It has to do with the baggage check-in where the passenger's checking a bag with the airline. ... This is not something that CLEAR has been able to implement or do or support. — Spruce Point Interview With A Former CLEAR Employee"

"I don’t think there’s another option. That’s what you have to do. — UCSF administrator; They increased their revenue in liver in 2023 by pushing every liver program not to use their OCS system as an a la carte item, but as part of their NOP program. We’ve pushed back saying we don’t need your surgeon and we don’t need your aviation company. — USC transplant surgeon"

"“turned out to be more trouble than it was worth” and that it “can set off hERG activity, which can (in some cases) lead to hearth rhythm problems, which can (in pretty much all cases) lead to your drug wiping out. And maybe taking you with it....” – “everyone would be worried about what might happen when the stuff hit the general population.” — Science (blog post)"

"“potent inhibitor of CYP2D6 and hERG” — Raddatz et al. “our laboratory findings suggest that CYP2D6 inhibition...would likely be important hurdles for this novel compound” — Abbott scientists. “in vitro profiling in our laboratory (and others) suggests that BF2.639 [pitolisant] has both a CYP2D6 liability...and potent hERG channel K+ blockade.” — Evotec scientists."

"Investigator: Is this the Shenzhen Kuayu Sporting Good Company? You do ANTA’s brands right? If we would like to become a franchisee is that alright? SZKY: We don’t do franchises. Investigator: How about as an agent? SZKY: We don’t. Investigator: So you are like… like… SZKY: We are self-operated. (直营) Investigator: So you are self-operated, not an agent? SZKY: Right"

"I don’t like the Transmedics people that much...a lot of people are very pissed off with the company...because they are acting too greedy and predatory. I really support that letter from that Congressman. Again, a lot of people in different transplant centers are very pissed off with the company.... I can tell you, I hate the CEO. — Transplant surgeon at Vanderbilt"

"“How many of you would like to make at least a million dollars a year in income?” — Herbalife Distributor Pitch; “Be your own boss.” — Herbalife Distributor Pitch; “The opportunity to earn more than you ever thought possible and make your dreams come true!” — Herbalife Distributor Pitch; “We went from bankruptcy to being set for life!” — Herbalife Distributor Pitch"

"HLF CEO Michael Johnson: “The FTC settlement is an acknowledgment that our business model is sound” — Herbalife. Carl Icahn: “The FTC settlement announced today, coming after a two-year investigation also concluded that Herbalife is not a pyramid scheme” — Carl Icahn. “I do not endorse that statement [referencing Icahn’s statement].” — FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez."

"Avery talks up its stock ownership policy that requires Directors and management to own minimum amounts of stock. However, what it doesn't say is that AVY insiders own just 1.1% of the total shares, and their overall ownership has declined materially in the past few years as we believe the business has become less competitive and under greater financial pressures."