Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"We are not surprised to see a significant decline of insider ownership since the IPO. We have found management’s interests are aligned with its compensation and achieving performance targets rather than long-term, sustained share price appreciation. PBH’s “private equity” like acquisition strategy appears built for an exit and not long-term sustained growth."

"When he told TransMedics an organ was unsuitable, they would disingenuously say “the machine will do the trick...the transplant centers...make the judgement” – a disingenuous ploy as “the transplant program who’s accepting the liver is not here...if I don’t tell them my professional judgment, they don’t know....it was simply, just put the liver on the pump.”"

"Notice carefully that LSPD's prospectus cloud image (right) fails to disclose customers, instead focusing on 47,000+ "Customer Locations". However, LSPD left a clue that allows us to calculate implied customers from the $500,000 GTV per customer. We estimate LSPD had 27,200 customers at IPO. This is 46% fewer customers than it reported just 5 months earlier."

"Danimer provided little disclosure of its litigation with Pereira. The limited disclosure is provided in financial statement footnotes (11 & 16 Commitments and Contingencies). There is no mention of the former Chairman and CEO and the filings only mention “the Company terminated a former executive and terminated the Company’s contract with an advisory firm.”"

"We believe that Vivion’s January 2019 purchase of three relatively rundown Potsdamer Straße properties from Aroundtown generated significant profits for Aroundtown. The purchase appears to have been at an undue premium, and could have been consistent with our view that Vivion deliberately inflates its asset values in order to increase its borrowing capacity."

"Unfortunately, as we have highlighted to you throughout our engagement, this overhang cannot be addressed through incremental improvements to the business, with analysts repeatedly highlighting the inability of the market to look beyond the longevity debate and reward the substantial operational improvements that the Company has made over the last few years."

"“This is definitely a possibility. Another guy and I within the company have been tasked to go direct, to approach the actual source of the data and see if we can do direct deals.” “You can get more from us and our competitors and we can pay less because there is no middleman to be paid...” “Its all doable, its not even near impossible.” — Anonymous customer"

"“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"

"We find it unusual that somebody gets up and gives a speech about a company who never bothers to talk to management. I think most informed investors would appreciate some time spent with us so they can talk these things through unless you are simply trying to develop the short thesis to scare people and make a quick buck and move on. — Mr. Walton, Allied CEO"

"We are pleased to report for the first time that we have made 4-layer multilayer cells in the 30x30mm form factor, and we have now seen close to 800 cycles at 30°C with over 90% capacity retention at both C/3 and 1C rates — substantially similar to the single-layer cells we reported in December. — Quantumscape Q4 FY2020 “Letter to Shareholders”, Feb 16, 2021"

""We have consistent performance ... and we're enjoying double-digit growth rates," Scovanner said. "No one else in the credit-card arena has those attributes. For the life of me, I don't understand why those attributes in combination would cause anyone to want to get into an active mode of analyzing a sale." — Doug Scovanner, CFO, Star Tribune, July 15, 2007"

"The Compensation Committee and/or the Chief Executive Officer also retain the right to exclude extraordinary charges or other special circumstances in determining whether the objectives were met during any particular fiscal year and may decide to grant 100% of the targeted cash bonus award, even if the financial targets do not fall within the specified range"

""Doctors that implanted a lot of devices, they hated Nevro. I don't know doctors who were high volume Nevro implanters that liked it and continued with their device... The only way I know to change that doctor's practice paradigm is bribing. It works. You give a doctor some money and they will say whatever you want." — KOL, former high volume Nevro implanter"

"The Committee took this information into account in determining the compensation package that was ultimately provided to T. Andrew Smith upon his appointment as Chief Executive Officer, but did not use the information to benchmark any element of his compensation. — April 30th, 2014 (Proxy): Compensation Committee discussion on Andy Smith Employment Agreement"

"“the last couple of months prior to me leaving, it was pretty consistent...since they purchased the planes, they basically were like, we’re not going to do this model anymore [of using the closest team to the donor]”; “it seemed to match up with” when TransMedics first bought the aircraft; “that seems to be when it started happening.” — Former OCS Specialist"

""I work with our OPO pretty closely...they also really despise TransMedics...they were being bullied...they wanted their unit access to DonorNet so they could see all of the donors...that were part of the [OPO name redacted] service area....they really didn't like that...they were pushing back...it kind of soured the relationship." — Transplant administrator"

"“I got three calls...so no, it wasn't a floodgate that opened.” — Trial investigator, pediatrician/geneticist, professor. “I wouldn't say anybody is wildly over the moon...it's not like a miracle...I don't think anybody's used the term miraculous to describe that they're seeing...no, it's not a cure.” — Trial investigator, pediatrician/geneticist, professor."

"For modeling purposes, we expect capital expenditures, excluding capitalized software of approximately $5 million to $8 million and share-based compensation expense of approximately $70 million for the full year. Fully diluted shares by the end of the year are expected to be in the range of 200 million to 205 million shares.. — PowerSchool 2021-2022 Guidance"

"“I was very critical, and they didn’t want to talk about the side effects, which I insisted on...they didn’t even tell us that those papers were being prepared or published...there were complications...they develop hairiness...they develop diabetes...they develop edema...we had to give diuretics to some people.” — Physician, KOL, and Vykat trial investigator"

"What I saw from the plant was essentially the bulk of their activities were pre-delivery activities for the non-Buy America bus, I saw several dozen there. We want major components for Buy America compliance. We would want them commissioning the power train, installing the battery, installing the switch gear, and the seats installed there. — Transit Official"

"We must feel assured that we are sufficiently strong to continue to conduct these business operations sustainably and be able to handle the big risks that still exist in the operations. We take a stand, and when we have taken a stand, we must dare be transparent and talk about the difficult and complex challenges that we have. — Ms. Ehrling (at the 2015 AGM)"

"I believe that, as far as the numbers are concerned, discussion is possible. But you have an auditor, and you have others who are overseeing the audit. I also know that there are some in-house analysts who are also looking at the issue. A clear opinion has emerged, which we at the DSW share, that the numbers have not been manipulated, massaged or falsified."

"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."

"They stated that when Twist attempts larger oligos, it has to use standard technology and not its chip: “they cannot come up with these really long oligos”; “you only use that in the early, early stages of discovery which is mostly in academia...then you don’t use that technology anymore”; “they take much longer because they need to use another technology.”"

"In 2017, Saputo acquired control of Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory Company.(1) Its Sungold milk brand appears to have shrunk. Its website shows only three products, and no longer provides news updates, information on farms & processes, or nutrition and health. Sungold milk's Twitter feed hasn't provided an update since 2018 and has just 55 followers."

"If I had to pick one platform, say hybridoma versus Berkeley Lights, for our antibody discovery effort, I tend to be more comfortable with the hybridoma approach, just because it's more robust, it's more reliable. Some of the issues we often encounter are the reliability of the instrument, and we haven't really gotten good hits derived from Berkeley Lights."

"We find management's unwillingness to entertain Neuberger's recommendations in a good-faith manner concerning. We have little confidence that Verint executives will change their ineffective growth strategy so long as they can help it, and their behavior throughout the proxy fight makes us question their commitment to defending the interests of shareholders."

"I mean, the guys from Muddy Waters are clever, too. And if you read it through carefully, then you'll see that they seldom said that these are the facts. They say, yes, we suspect that was the case, it would be nice to have clarification, it may be, that this or that is the case, but it could also be quite different; we don't understand it all. — Udo Müller"

"Canadian Tire would be significantly increasing its financial exposure. In the second case, [Dealer] would likely stop ordering inventory, stock would be depleted, customer needs for products would go unfulfilled, and the Canadian Tire brand and reputation would suffer. I accept the concern of Canadian Tire as valid. — Canadian Tire Dealer Bankruptcy Filing"

""The penetration level in private brands of the entire coffee business is between 10 and 11%. It’s been staying about there. But Sturm feels that the potential penetration level of single serve coffee is so much greater than it is for the standard business because the price differentials are going to be huge." — Private label food & beverage industry expert"

""I said to another CEO...who had called me and inquired about Nelson, that if I were to form the board today, Nelson would be one of the first Directors I'd ask to serve because he is an insightful, communicative, enthusiastic, energetic and available Director." — Bill Johnson (CEO from 1998-2013, Trian Advisory Partner Since 2015), CEO Magazine, March 2008"

""Our subsidiary, Spartan Surfaces, reported another strong quarter with fiscal 2023 third quarter total sales increasing by 47.5% from last year." and "We are incredibly pleased with Spartan Surfaces fiscal 2023 Fourth Quarter and full year sales and earnings results, which exceeded our expectations and were accretive to earnings" — Floor & Decor Management"

"“The question that we're getting a lot from investors is how to think about EPS growth and should EPS growth just follow and marry revenue growth, or is there opportunity and would management and the Board come off their 19% and 20% margin range or even perhaps get more aggressive on share repurchases or get more aggressive on M&A.” — Oppenheimer, Aug. 2016"

"Nepotism, Cronyism, Incestuous...you'll find whole families working here- Mom, Dad, Son etc., BEWARE! ... Many of the Directors and Senior Leadership are incompetent but have "connections" so despite their ineptness they somehow manage to maintain leadership positions and some of their husbands or ex-husband works there too! — Anonymous Employee (Glassdoor)"

"“At NiSource we had deliberations on whether it was time to spin off the Columbia Pipeline assets rather than keep those in the company because it was a different business. At first there was resistance within the company, but we ultimately elected to split the company, the market reacted very positively to it, and the rest was history.” — Sigmund Cornelius"

"In Q2, I briefly discuss the increase in account receivable as a result of our strong revenue growth. We saw the impact of strong revenue growth on receivables again in Q3 as AR increased by $29.7 million from Q2 of 2021. We are implementing a new order to cash process as we onboard, new clients and expect to reduce our DSO in 2022. — CFO on Q3'21 Conf Call"

"“. . . If you had to pay $60 at the beginning of each month for that month's supply of coffee, far fewer people could participate. But when you pay $2 a day, it is such a low price point, people can afford it. People living hand to mouth or whatever it may be, so far more people can afford that.” — CFO John DeSimone, Jefferies Consumer Conference, 6/22/2010"

"“At NiSource we had deliberations on whether it was time to spin off the Columbia Pipeline assets rather than keep those in the company because it was a different business. At first there was resistance within the company, but we ultimately elected to split the company, the market reacted very positively to it, and the rest was history.” — Sigmund Cornelius"

"166,000 ounces already pre-developed at Nkran, which don't require any further capital development to access — AKG, press release, 2017-04-27. To-date, the in-pit development work that we have done at Nkran gives us access to ore inventory of 2.7 million tons containing approximately 166,000 ounces that is ready to be mined. — AKG, press release, 2017-05-04"

"“...Verint’s revenue disclosures are lacking...it does not provide inorganic revenue, maintenance revenue, or cloud revenue, metrics we believe would help us better judge the quality of revenue, the contribution to growth of different revenue streams, and organic growth.” — Samad Samana, Jefferies research analyst, Jefferies Research Report January 10, 2019"

"I would say, you know, do you want more of the same or do you want to sustainably re-rate this company? Is this company and is the stock price over the long-term going to be higher or lower with our nominees in that boardroom, instilling accountability, engaging in the necessary oversight? Are you going to make more money with those nominees or less? — John"

"“the majority of the operations...are believed to have been carried out by the pioneering surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub.” — The Guardian (implied context) / “Sir Magdi recognises he was the man for a time when clinical governance was less tight and ethical positions still fluid. Would his pioneering be possible today? Definitely not, he says.” — BMA’s The Doctor"

"I actually looked into this a few months ago; it's like the price increased significantly. When we were doing it ourselves, I think it was around $20 or $30,000 per disposable. And now, I think bundled together, it's getting closer to $80 to 90,000. ... The cost was nowhere near what it is now. — Transplant cardiologist at a major Ivy League academic center"

"“Pitolisant is mostly metabolized by CYP450 2D6 and the metabolic phenotype of this enzyme varies widely across individuals (ultra-low, normal, high and ultra-high metabolizers)... the potential for changes in pitolisant levels and associated cardiovascular complications are downplayed across the board.” — Pharmacology consultant engaged by Scorpion Capital"

""they made it so difficult...because of the centralized pharmacy...any benefit...is basically in the wash...practically meaningless." — Physician and professor of neurology at a large academic center; "they play the schedule thing really high"..."what you have to jump through"..."it shouldn't be this hard." — Physician in private and academic practice in PA"

"“Another thing that worries me is speed. It’s not a secret that many in the field do not think ion traps are going to work because the clock speed of an ion-trap quantum computer is just very slow... I don’t think it’s going to happen. So, I do not believe IonQ is doing enough to mitigate the foreseen challenges.” — Former senior scientific employee of IonQ"

"It's been several years since I spent all my severance pay. I was looking at going public, but I don't know what they are doing, let alone going public. My bloody money is my severance pay for sleeping, not eating, and working hard. If you are a company official, shouldn't you contact them to see what the company is doing? — Anonymous forum user on 38.co.kr"

"“I have not even heard of a single A300 system, a 300 system that shipped even. I don't know if it's pure vaporware, and it's just a press release to match the shipment of the first High-NA system to Intel, and they want to match that press release.” — Longtime executive at Global Foundries; directly involved with Lasertec and all aspects of mask inspection"

"“I have not even heard of a single A300 system, a 300 system that shipped even. I don't know if it's pure vaporware, and it's just a press release to match the shipment of the first High-NA system to Intel, and they want to match that press release.” — Longtime executive at Global Foundries; directly involved with Lasertec and all aspects of mask inspection"

"We believe that the rapid uptake of the Libre among T2 patients compared to their much more muted adoption of the G-Series demonstrates that the (current) technological advantages of the more expensive G-Series are superfluous for T2 diabetics, and that the rest of the T2 market is almost entirely open for the taking by the cheaper and easier-to-use Libre."

"Effective Dec 31, 2021 Stryker says it realigned its business and financial reporting around “Orthopaedics and Spine” and “MedSurg and Neurotechnology” – However, months later its website shows three different product groupings, and “Spine” appears under both Orthopaedics and Neurotechnology. Clicking on the “Spine” links go to the exact same product page."

"Value Proposition: Trian believes Mr. Winkleblack's substantial executive experience, including almost 12 years of service as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of H.J. Heinz Company, provides him with knowledgeable perspectives on strategic planning, international operations, acquisitions and divestitures and cost and financial controls."

"A 5.8 point reduction is well within what common sense indicates is the margin of error in a crude survey like ESS – the reduction is equal to a patient self-reporting that they went from a “high chance” of “dozing” to a “slight chance” in 3 of 8 settings, with still a high chance in each of the other 5 settings like “sitting and reading” or “watching TV.”"

"By the time the Company published its results for the financial year ended 31 March 2013 (“FY2013”), endorsement by the tax bureau was not received. The Company, for the sake of prudence, made tax provision for the relevant PRC subsidiary on the basis of a tax rate of 25%. During the financial year ended 31 March 2014 (“FY2014”), the PRC — Man Wah Holdings"

""This 250-basis-point decline in gross margin as compared to the prior year was mainly the result of an unfavorable mix -- sales mix. The shift in mix was driven by the significant growth in shipments of portable generators and mobile products during the quarter, which carry lower gross margins relative to the consolidated corporate average." — CFO Q3 2017"

"“Tianjin Harborside (wholly owned by Tianjin Port) will provide 120 hectares, assist in acquiring commercial and residential lands, secure a preferential price for Superb while conducting tender auction”, and “Tianjin will provide additional land to provide commercial accommodation services and living facilities.” — Superb Summit (Jan 5, 2011 announcement)"

"Upon transition from CEO to Executive Chair on March 1, Mr. Gustafsson's base salary was reduced to $200,000 and he ceased participation in the 2023 Zebra Incentive Plan as of that date. Additionally, he received a one-time $9,000,000 equity award of time-vested RSUs that vest as of the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. — Zebra Executive Chair Agreement"

"Lagomasino oversaw consecutive years of problematic compensation decisions, resulting in significant shareholder opposition, which the committee [that she chaired] failed to promptly address. ISS also noted that “Lagomasino bears more responsibility than any other serving nominee for the failure ... to cultivate a readily apparent successor to Iger.” — ISS"

""Now last thing I would say is our expectations are very high for experts because this is now -- you're truly talking about service-as-a-software where they are the interface to customers and the standard in which we expect them to deliver for customers, the value that we expect them to create is very, very high." — Intuit CEO Goodarzi at 2021 Investor Day"

"Perfumers, it's time to be reacquainted with Indian Sandalwood (Santalum album). One of the oldest perfumery materials in the world, this precious ingredient has had a tumultuous history, plagued by illegal poaching and adulteration. Little wonder it all but vanished from the perfumer's palette. — Indian Sandalwood Competition American Society of Perfumers"