Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"“By 2007, operating an Herbalife independent distributorship business had become unsustainable. Herbalife’s entire program is based on purchases made from Herbalife. Distributors have to purchase product from Herbalife each month in order to obtain their paychecks.” — Bruce Roth, Declaration in Herbalife Int'l of America, Inc. v. Ford et al."

"Should the providers of platforms, particularly browsers, further block, constrain or limit our ability to offer or change search properties, or materially change their guidelines, technology or the way they operate, our ability to generate revenue from our users' search activity could be significantly reduced. — Perion 2021 20-F / 2022 20-F"

"We believe that an effective and well-functioning board that has appropriate governance structures to facilitate oversight of a company's management and strategic initiatives is critical to the long-term financial success of a company and the protection of shareholders' economic interests — BlackRock Proxy Voting Guidelines for US securities"

"“Our proprietary paresthesia-free HF10 therapy, delivered by our Senza system, was demonstrated in our SENZA-RCT study to be superior to traditional SCS therapy, with HF10 therapy being nearly twice as successful in treating back pain and 1.5 times as successful in treating leg pain when compared to traditional SCS therapy.” — Nevro 2020 10K"

"“I don't know anybody in cardiac transplant as opposed to liver that are using a TransMedics-hired surgeon...the NOP market, the soup-to-nuts offering, is useless for cardiac because I don't know many cardiac surgeons that would ever trust anybody except their own surgeons.” — Prominent surgeon, Director of leading academic transplant center"

"Sony's Master Series Z9G 8K TVs are leading entrants in the new category, providing the eye-popping 7680 x 4320-pixel resolution that defines 8K, along with a host of features and performance tweaks unique to Sony TVs. The result is staggering, with giant screens, unbeatable detail, and fantastic clarity and realism — Tom's Guide, April 2019"

"The plasma level average was 100.6±78.1 ng/ml (n=17). Elevated plasma levels (> 150 ng/ml) were observed in 5 patients, in some cases related to the experience of adverse events occurring a few hours after drug intake. — An inverse agonist of the histamine H3 receptor improves wakefulness in narcolepsy: Studies in orexin-/- mice and patients"

"Skechers was the second worst performer during the mid-June Chinese Dragon Boat Festival promotional period. YoY sales were down -28%, significantly worse than other brands that largely posted double-digit or even triple-digit positive gains. Skechers’ discounting activity is also among the highest, consistent with our market conversations."

"Some bulls might argue that the unprecedented drop in crude oil is a massive windfall for WD-40. The Company says that 33% of its cost of to produce a can is petroleum-based specialty chemicals. Of course, the problem is that low oil prices are coinciding with severely depressed economic activity which we expect to materially depress sales."

"Spruce Point believes investors should be skeptical of the continued outperformance of PERI’s share price. PERI recently announced a CEO transition plan and then disclosed concerning revisions to accounting policies in its annual report. Insiders have been repeatedly liquidating shares and PERI reported its first cash flow decline in years."

"BR claims that management is compensated on segment profit, allowing it to elect to record certain segment operating and non-operating expense items in “Other”. However, this does not appear to be true as recent Proxy Statements do not reward management at all based on “segment profit”. As a result, segment margins are potentially inflated."

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

"The entire chain of transactions screams pre-planned, as evidenced by the lie about timing and attempts to obfuscate DFRL's roundtrip; Shunshun's apparent lack of suitability for a legitimate partnership; the quick flips of equity by short-term shareholders at seemingly significant profits; and egregious valuations that fail the laugh test."

"Heska Chairman Scott Humphrey's biography says he is a retired executive. It fails to disclose he is a Senior Advisor for a Canadian M&A called advisory firm called Clariti Advisors and a U.S. advisory firm called Sun Acquisitions, creating the potential for future conflicts of interest, as well as a director of two other private companies."

""We think that wearables are a key to the MAHA agenda, Making America Healthy Again ... my vision is that every American is wearing a wearable within four years," Kennedy said, speaking before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Health during a hearing on his department's 2026 budget request."

"“If that pans out, I do see a seismic shift in the DNA synthesis market; if one of these vendors can actually hit those prices and deliver consistently.” — Former Twist manager in a manufacturing role, previously and currently employed by key competitors. “I’m not bullish about their NGS products.” — Former employee now at a key competitor."

"“Herbalife’s entire business model appears to incentivize primarily the payment of compensation that is ‘facially unrelated to the sale of the product to the ultimate users because it is paid based on the suggested retail price of the amount ordered from [HLF], rather than based on actual sales to consumers.’” — District Judge Gary A. Feess"

"“As we work to continually reinvent our category and lead a new era of intelligent finance for SMBs, we are also focused on becoming a more efficient, agile organization so that we can move faster on high-impact opportunities, drive durable revenue growth and deliver superior, sustainable value creation.” — René Lacerte, BILL CEO (10/16/25)"

"“For 2012, the compensation committee used Adjusted EBITDA as the sole performance metric under the annual and long-term incentive compensation programs because it believes that Adjusted EBITDA provides a simple and understandable measure of our recurring profitability and it is highly correlated to our stock price performance” — 2012 Proxy"

""we said that we think it could be $10 billion product for us in a market that could be $90 billion. Clearly, we are going to be one of them." — Albert Bourla (PFE CEO), January 9, 2023. "And that's how we get to our $10 billion global opportunity for Pfizer oral GLP-1." — Andy Schmeltz (PFE Global President of Oncology), February 16, 2023."

"“Medical device companies are particularly at risk with respect to FCPA violations. [...] More directly, practices that are common in the medical device industry, such as product discounts tied to purchase volume and incentive programs to encourage increased purchasing, may violate both the letter and the spirit of the FCPA.” — MD+DI Online"

"three of eight patients received diuretics throughout the period of time that they developed respiratory deterioration and fluid overload...however, they did not show any signs of improvement until the diazoxide was discontinued...in addition, similar to findings from the existing literature, the development of edema was not dose dependent."

"“The data is not available. The only person I really asked my immediate supervisor. She didn't know. They'd constantly say we'll find out for you. But the only way that I would know is to be asking physicians, 'Hey, is that patient on drug?' ...nowhere at Harmony is that information available.” — Former territory manager in an eastern state"

""what you will see is anytime there is a new vintage of cards out there, the first year, there are no losses. And then what happens is it spikes up to 10% or 12%. And then it cleans out the junk. And it comes back down to your 6.5%. That's called a vintage." — Alliance Data Systems (Bank of America Conference transcript; September 17, 2008)"

""[M]any Distributors find it all but impossible to make enough money from retail sales of product to cover the overhead of the club and also generate income for the owner." — 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.20."

"“We are aware of the A300 series, and that is something that we will be looking at evaluating, but it most likely won’t be until the beginning of 2025 only because there’s hardware demand softness that we’re seeing, and so it doesn’t make sense for us right now to move forward with a new evaluation..” — Senior employee at Marvell Technology"

"We believe the Board's actions and preference for the status quo make it clear that the Board needs direct representation for common stockholders and new independent directors who will bring fresh perspectives, true independence, and a renewed sense of accountability to the Company, while putting the interests of common stockholders first."

"Use of Muddy Waters reports is limited by the Terms of Service on its website, which are as follows. To be authorized to access such reports, you must agree to these terms, regardless of whether you have downloaded its reports directly from this website or someone else has supplied the report to you without authorization from Muddy Waters."

"OTC flea & tick medication comprises 30-40% of PetIQ sales. Unfortunately, consumers have generally been shifting away from topical solutions in favor of orals. Meanwhile, declining Frontline effectiveness following a recent formula change, together with the arrival of cheaper competitors, has helped to shrink Frontline’s share since 2014."

"Instrument is prone to a long list of errors and malfunctions; "there’s always something" wrong it whether door jams, problems with cells; Pfizer has struggled for 2-3 years to optimize the machine; requires significant "chaperoning" from BLI; machine can’t even do functional assays properly which renders it useless for antibody discovery."

"PGNY often boasts that its network has the best clinics. However, we found that two clinics in the PGNY network have received FDA warning letters, four clinics that failed to report their outcomes data to the CDC for 2019, and nine clinics that were listed as unaccredited in the CDC's 2019 report despite having been in operation for years."

"CEO Wilson formed the Cuattro Foundation on 12/27/18, about a month after the November 2018 transaction with Heska. Given Wilson's history of related party transactions (read the Heska proxy related to the Cuattro Veterinary deal), we would love to review the foundation's activities, but it hasn't filed a Form 990 (as required) since 2018."

"Use of Muddy Waters reports is limited by the Terms of Service on its website, which are as follows. To be authorized to access such reports, you must agree to these terms, regardless of whether you have downloaded its reports directly from this website or someone else has supplied the report to you without authorization from Muddy Waters."

""we said that we think it could be $10 billion product for us in a market that could be $90 billion. Clearly, we are going to be one of them." — Albert Bourla (PFE CEO), January 9, 2023; "And that's how we get to our $10 billion global opportunity for Pfizer oral GLP-1." — Andy Schmeltz (PFE Global President of Oncology), February 16, 2023"

"If certain factors arise, we may be required to record a significant non-cash charge to earnings in our consolidated financial statements during the period in which an impairment of our goodwill is determined. Any such non-cash charge could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations and net worth. — WTRG 2022 Annual Report"

"The opinions expressed herein stem from an analysis performed by Qverity, Inc. based upon their education, training, and experience in behavioral analysis for use by our client Muddy Waters. Client is responsible for any claims made or brought against them or Qverity, Inc. based upon any further dissemination of the opinions stated herein."

""I think Ströer alone has spent two 2 million euros on lawyers' and auditors' fees, etc. to be 100% sure that everything connected with the transaction was 100% compliant." — Udo Müller (via representative at telephone conference). "No, this" - meaning the package - "was literally the only asset acquired from Media Ventures." — Udo Müller."

""More damning, in our view, is the startling wealth of information strongly indicating that, all other things held equal, Vivendi intends to direct Telecom Italia in the service of its own interests and without regard to the overwhelming majority of otherwise unaffiliated investors." — Glass Lewis, Telecom Italia Proxy Paper, April 7, 2018"

"We are thrilled to welcome IperionX to the Commonwealth. The new Halifax County operation will represent the first titanium metal powder facility in the U.S. using 100% recycled titanium scrap as feedstock, putting Virginia on the map for providing a critical material that is essential for our advanced industries. — Governor Glenn Youngkin"

""My focus is scalability and manufacturability and that's a huge gap... They're not manufacturing folks. They are not process engineers. They're closer to R&D scale." — Former employee; "I think they're buying time to show that they can do these [cells] repeatedly or reproducibly. So, I'm very skeptical of the scale part" — Former employee"

"Electing new management nominees is itself likely to be seen as a vote for the old order; electing dissident nominees, if they carry meaningful credentials and experience, sends a far stronger signal to the incumbent board, and is thus more likely to effect change. — ISS Proxy Advisory Services, Barnes & Noble Proxy Contest, September 2010"

"In the past, executives from TICO have asked Denso to admit direct sales to each OEM from TICO, but no such initiatives have happened so far. It is true that there are currently plenty of lost opportunities and irrationality between Denso and TICO from a perspective of entire TMC group. — Former Sales Planning Chief of a Component Supplier"

"“Celgene has guided a 2020 approval date, and $3B in potential peak revenues. While we view the likelihood of a 2020 approval as high, we believe the potential peak sales will be closer to $1.2B. As a third to market product in a developing market wherein sales have been modest thus far, this guidance is aggressive…” — Cowen, February 2019"

"“Those areas are changing hands for millions. I don't know too much about it because I can't stick my nose in too much. But you know that by law concessions can't be sold anymore. But up until last year they were still being sold. And tomorrow they'll be being sold as well.” — Local cooperative miner who lives and works next to Silver Sand"

"Beginning with the first quarter of fiscal year 2022, the Company revised the foreign exchange rates used to present segment revenues, segment earnings (loss) before income taxes, and Closed sales, to further allocate the foreign exchange impact to the individual segment revenue and profit metrics — Broadridge Financial Presentation Change"

"The biggest challenge was not truly integration. It was that Stryker has a “pompous” attitude let me put it that way. One of the challenges is that Stryker has great relationships, and Mako had a great device, and Stryker was reluctant to put Mako in front of its clients. It took a long time to get over that hump. — Former Mako Salesperson"

"Focus is solely on revenue. Customer satisfaction isn't acknowledged. Shove integrations down clients throats as fast as possible even if it is sloppy. Company is realigned nearly monthly. I had 6 managers in 12 months, 3 of which never met with me. Company is cut throat and is laying off and firing their best employees. — Glassdoor Review"

"We’re going to have higher margins with the delivery of these cost synergies, and we haven’t quantified the benefits of any revenue synergies but we would clearly expect to be able to grow at higher rates over the longer term than we would independently.... And we see some very specific opportunities — CEO on Revenue Synergies, Aug 7, 2018"

""Lets start having fun ... lets get funky ... lets announce everything ... lets be WILDLY positive in our forecasts ... lets take this thing to the extreme ... if we get wacked on the ride down – who gives a shit ... THE TIME TO GET RADICAL IS NOW ... WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE...." — Eric Lefkofsky (quoted in lawsuit regarding Starbelly.com)"

"“made material misstatements and omissions to key stakeholders, such as the Board, the Company's external auditors, and the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC")” and that “At one point, Mr. Petit falsely testified under oath during a deposition when discussing the Company's largest distributor”. — MiMedx Audit Committee investigation"

"What astounds me and really made me a little hesitant on the way here is that I know of no other company on the stock exchange where everyone, including all the analysts, are saying "buy" and the discrepancy between the price and lowest analyst target price - it was 62.50 euros, I think, from Kepler Cheuvreux - is so huge as in this case."

"Spruce Point has serious concerns with Mr. Starrett who joined the Board of Pacific Sunwear of California, Inc. (Nasdaq: PSUN) in 2003. In February 2005, the company issued a non-reliance warning on its financials and restated results after determining that its accounting practices related to leases and landlord incentives were incorrect."

"The poor economics of this business, in our opinion, fuel SOFI's need to issue equity. While there could be strategic value to the Student Loan business, given its direct economic costs, we believe that SOFI's principal reason for originating at these levels is to meet targets for management bonuses through manipulating their Fair Values."

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

"Turner Networks are valued at 12.0x - 13.0x 2006PF OIBDA, in line with the trading levels of Viacom and Discovery (valuation is unfavorably impacted by the structure of the company) and a premium to the trading valuations of E.W. Scripps (which includes TV and newspaper assets). In comparison, TWX trades at a multiple of 8.3x 2006E OIBDA."

"Though Stryker's acquisition of Mako Surgical in late 2013 made it an early mover into the robotic-assisted surgery space, nearly all of its major competitors such as Zimmer, Smith & Nephew, Medtronic, J&J and Globus Medical have followed with acquisitions of competing systems covering not only knee surgeries, but also spine applications."

"Notably, not one of the releases below discloses a deal size – and all are silent on the critical question of whether they are undisclosed related parties – that is, whether Ginkgo or its investors like Viking are investors in the entities or are providing proceeds that will be round-tripped back to Ginkgo as “revenue” in coming quarters."

"Cintas repeatedly claimed in 2019 that capex, acquisitions, dividends and lastly share repurchase were its capital priorities. Yet, with capex stated as the #1 priority, it cut its capex guidance three times, and share repurchases soared to $1bn – making repurchases clearly the largest capital priority despite management saying otherwise."

"Lead Independent Director and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Chair Sean Aggarwal and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee member Betsey Stevenson have overseen negative total returns during their tenures, lack financial sophistication based on their track records at Lyft, and support the dual-class share structure."

"I fail to see how any third-party payor would accept this as a treatment...I just find it very hard to think that third-party payers are just going to do that. It’s a bit like the Sarepta drug or something. You have one devastating DKA and heart failure. I think they had some serious adverse effects where somebody was admitted to the ICU."