Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

""Had we stopped the sweep of capital day one, by the time we got to the fourth year of the Trump administration, we easily could have done a secondary offering or two and fully capitalize the companies, or get very close it." — Craig Phillips, Counselor to the US Treasury Secretary from 2017 to 2019, in May 27, 2021 interview"

"“Yeah. I saw the pictures. This is like, I could do it better than this. They were procuring for the heart. You see what I'm saying? It's not device malfunction, but it's the experience and expertise of the team and the surgeon who's procuring it.” — Veteran transplant administrator/executive at Massachusetts General Hospital"

"“Well, if you don’t— he got really kind of nasty. He’s like, ‘Well, if you don’t like it, then leave,’ when somebody was asking questions about improving things, and that was just their answer to it, which I thought was weird that you’re not worried about turnover in a job like this.” — Former OCS Specialist who left recently"

"bARR & ARR should not be considered as predictors of future revenues but only as indicators of the direction in which revenues may be trending. Actual revenue results in the future as determined in accordance with GAAP may be significantly different to the amounts indicated as bARR or ARR at any time. — authID Inc. Disclaimer"

"You know the way they always announce the sales; they're not sales [...] They'll give them [the co-creators] money and then with the money that they gave them [the co-creators] buy the car. Plus, they give them fees to be the [co-creator], so every car that was sold we would lose like a million dollars. — Former FFAI employee"

"В вашем регионе весной (весенние каникулы) будет оформление усыновление трех сирот из ЛНР. Хотим сделать детям праздник и экскурсии у вас в городе. Их принимает их новые семьи после всех формальностей. Хотим чтобы несколько дней пожили у вас пока документы будут оформляться по усыновлению 5-7 дней. Можете предоставить скидку?"

"One possible reason for the increase in the assessment of the inventory value could have been a material increase in coal prices. However, Contura's own investor presentation described key Met Coal prices as "Firm" and there doesn't appear to be any material price change between merger announcement (April) and closing (Nov)."

"You should assume that as of the publication date of our reports and research, Muddy Waters, LLC... has a short position in all stocks (and/or options, swaps, and other derivatives related to the stock) and bonds covered herein, and therefore stands to realize significant gains in the event that the price of either declines."

"Shouldn't DV investors be concerned that it cannot specifically quantify its total number of customers and has reported the same boilerplate figure of "over 1,000" since first filing with the SEC in September 2020? Even worse, DV doesn't define what exactly is a customer, while its close peer IAS gives a lengthy description."

"Our proposal is not rooted in a mere abstract preference for the separation of the Chair (to be independent) and CEO, disregarding other viable governance structures. Rather, it stems from our specific assessment of the unequivocal failure of BlackRock's governance to provide independent oversight on the company's management"

"BLI instrument has so many problems that Amgen staff strongly resist using it; have to be occasionally forced to do so; machine is mind-numbingly difficult to use and error-prone, scaring even tech-savvy scientists at the company; error-handling protocol alone is 4 pages; “very hard” to develop a new process with the device."

"Companies that consistently invested their cash flow and resources in a share repurchase program have generated material outperformance over the past 5, 10 and 15 year periods, leading to an average of more than 4% greater annualized returns versus the S&P 500 index and 4x the amount of investor gains over the 15-year period"

"In its 2019 IPO prospectus, PGNY references its treatment outcomes (most often referred to as "superior" or "optimal") a whopping 57 times, and the Company frequently references its superior outcomes data relative to non-members, both in-network and outside the PGNY network of clinics. We believe these claims are disputable."

"Heska's gross margins generally fall between those of high value-added diagnostic equipment companies and pure animal health distributors. Heska's EBITDA margins fall below those of nearly all possible comparable companies. We believe this is indicative of Heska's lack of proprietary technology and poor competitive position."

"The potential payment of US$30 million, largely to senior executives, is truly jarring when assessed against the chronic underperformance, pervasive misallocation of capital, culture of excessive pay and track record of wasteful administrative spend that these same executives have been accountable for over the past decade..."

"The recent explosion of normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) – an inexpensive way to retrieve DCD organs, the entire use case for TransMedics and driver of its growth – renders TransMedics essentially obsolete, given NRP is $3,000 per case versus $80-90K for OCS plus another $40-100K or more for its NOP procurement service."

"The article stated that “the Chinese authorities suspended the registration and approval of direct selling amid a nationwide crackdown on wrongdoing in the health products market”, and this means Morinda and other direct-selling companies in China are not expected to increase their presence in cities/provinces any time soon."

"“Yes...on #OTC. Uplisting soon.” — Director Batstone; “We are planning on uplisting in the next three months. We have a lot of people circling the wagons, I should say, to give us money. We are looking for the right money now, at this point in time. We already have the money to uplist. We want to get bigger.” — CEO Doug Cole"

""Part of the reason we struggle to underwrite Box’s story of accelerating growth and expanding margins is the fact that Box has discussed initiatives to accelerate growth in the past, but not delivered on it, and has had several different target models, consistently needing to walk them back" — RBC Capital Markets, July 2021"

"“The $14,992,000 due from the LFB [Leizhou Forestry Bureau] represents cash collected from the sale of wood chips on behalf of the Leizhou EJV. As originally agreed to by Sino-Wood, the cash was being retained by the LFB to fund the ongoing plantation costs of the Leizhou EJV incurred by the LFB.” — 1996 Annual Report, p. 20"

"In addition, these loans are priced at market rates, which not only helps to diversify our balance sheet, but also provides an additional return above our cost of funding and a yield similar to the net interest margin of our loans, which are unsecured. — CFO Lapointe, SOFI Technologies, Inc., Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript"

"“Japan is a massive opportunity for us. Today, Holters are reimbursed at a higher rate in Japan than what they are reimbursed in the U.S. I think that bodes very well for the reimbursement rate we're likely to see get established in the Japanese market for long-term patching.” — CEO Blackford, J.P. Morgan Conference, 1/13/25"

"What we acquired is an opco. So, the propco has been maybe sitting on Tenet's balance sheet due to the accounting for leases...We acquired this opco for GBP10 million enterprise value and we have a propco arrangement with another real estate company for the next 25 years. — NMC CEO remarks on H1 2018 Earnings Call, Bloomberg"

"Underperforming multi-segment players trade at a lower value, underperforming pure play companies trade at a lower value. The common denominator between the two groups is not structure, it's performance. So, in our case, if we perform better, there will be no conglomerate discount. — Paul Keel, then-CEO (at 2021 Analyst Day)"

"But remember, the funny accounting is that, we could only recognize the operating profit and net sales for the first four months. And so it's really less than -- it's around half of that. So we can go through it in more detail if you like offline. But it's -- that's why it's less than maybe what you think. — CFO Rick Dierker"

"NRP is going to rapidly skyrocket in utilization... as more and more big academic centers... start spreading their surgeon graduates... around to other centers... we're going to see smaller programs that don't have an NRP program to start building their own. — Transplant cardiologist at one of the top centers in the US/world"

"PATIENT WAS IN THE IDE FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR THE INSPIRE UPPER AIRWAY STIMULATION SYSTEM AND HAS BEEN IMPLANTED WITH THE SYSTEM FOR 4 YEARS. RECENTLY HE CALLED HIS PHYSICIAN AND STATED THAT HE WAS HAVING TROUBLE MOVING THE RIGHT SIDE OF HIS TONGUE FOLLOWING A NIGHT IN WHICH HE AWOKE FROM A SHARP PAIN ON THE SIDE OF HIS NECK."

"A lot of doctors think it's a waste of money...I think a lot of doctors are unfamiliar with it or not so excited about it. There's not so many subscribers of it, and I'm starting to think that some doctors also think that Xywav is it. He doesn't think it works at all. — Neurologist in New York with 70-80 narcolepsy patients."

"It's much harder to do molecular cloning on a single cell than a pool of cells like you would from hybridoma. So, from there, you try to generate recombinant even if you can get recombinant for reasons that are still quite mysterious; the result is not consistent with what Berkeley Lights is saying. — Pfizer senior scientist"

"When I first got there, I was sitting there and everyone was there, and I asked one of the German people. I was like “man [YT] owns all these homes.” He’s like “No. He doesn’t”. He gave me a little smile. He goes, “the cooks and the maids own them, otherwise they would have been taken away a long time ago.” — Former Employee"

""As a result, our company, in cooperation with the UAE defense-specialized company Calidus, has achieved a meaningful outcome of signing, with Australia's world-class defense company EOS, the nation's first contract for technology transfer and production of a 100-kW laser drone air defense system." — Goldrone official notice"

"No, I have not seen a live demonstration... I have not seen a working device or any pictures or images from or computerized tomography pictures of this, or images with this device yet. I don't think that's something that is done yet. As far as I know, no one has gotten scanned by this device yet. — NNOX Advisory Board Member"

"Amy Satov, Nuvei’s Senior Legal Counsel, mysteriously disappeared from Nuvei’s website after March 2021 and no regulatory filing was made. She was replaced by Lindsay Matthews in May 2021 as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. The timing of her departure in relation to the departure of Allan Lacoste appears suspicious."

"The Loan Platform Business is not a capital-lite “tollbooth” generating fee income from connecting borrowers with third-party buyers. It appears to be a sophisticated financing arrangement called a “wet-funded forward flow agreement” that, in our opinion, SOFI is using to disguise borrowings against loans as sales of loans."

"We attribute ~2.3% of annual AFFO per share growth from 2008 to 2017 is from interest rate savings. If you strip out the growth from interest rate savings, the AFFO / Share grew at annualized rate of 3.5%. We warn investors not to extrapolate O Realty's AFFO historical growth as interests turn from a tailwind to a headwind."

"Spruce Point fact-checked C3's claim from a May 23, 2018 press release announcing a partnership with Intel. We observe that on the same day C3 announced the alliance, Intel also issued a press release about enterprise AI, without referencing C3.(1) A review of Intel's website suggests limited evidence of a deep partnership."

"they might push you and say, well, I think this liver is fine, you should use it... they are pushy...they’re a pushy company...they will say ‘I think this liver is going to work...I think it’s usable...you should use it...it’s their medical director, Attia...they lose the money...so they try really hard not to lose organs.”"

"Sometimes lost in the talk of Amazon's regional growth are the AWS offices near Dulles International Airport. AWS named Fairfax County the home of its East Coast hub roughly four years and said it would add some 1,500 new jobs. Amazon leased some 400,000 square feet at the time but added another 275,000 square feet in 2019."

"The cost is absolutely outrageous...my concern is certainly, is this cost-effective? And if they are charging half a million to $1 million per person, that is very expensive for a drug that isn’t that novel ...it’s hard to justify the cost of the diazoxide, the normal formulation, which the Proglycem is about $800 a bottle."

"Harmony’s sales are dependent on a handful of physicians, paid via a speakers program that ex-employees described as a blatant kickback scheme; one of Harmony’s top speakers estimated that he and four others he knows are responsible for 5-700 of all Wakix patients - 20-30% of total revenue depending on how one does the math"

"ENFN claims that managed service revenue increased by $1.6 million from new clients and $2.7 million from existing clients, offset by churn (which is not quantified) for a total of $4.3 million. However, total segment revenue only increased by $2.7 million. Therefore, we estimate revenue lost from churn to be ~$1.6 million."

"A "longtime friend of Petters," Per court documents, Christensen served as President of Petters Consumer Brands / Polaroid from 2003-04. He was simultaneously a principal of Lancer Financial Services, LLC, an entity formed in 2001 which was ultimately among the largest funnels into, and beneficiaries of, the Petters scheme."

"Analyst: “We always talk about incremental margins with you.... You got all this operating leverage. How do we think about operating margin then?” Mark Donegan (PCC CEO): “And again they move, but I think that the range in which you should expect to see it move is somewhere between that 35% and 45%, 48%.” — December 3, 2014"

""[There] is no value for refining in PSX at current levels... This has periodically opened debate on whether PSX should be viewed on a Sum Of The Parts basis: but no part of its assets are public, and with no obvious intent to monetize individual assets and disposal / deleveraging plans..." — Wolfe Research, January 2, 2025"

"“Right now we just can’t [get behind the Company] because we’re again disdained and there’s very little concern right now at the C-suite, you know, outside of their jobs. There’s not a concern for the employees. And that’s something we can never forget and really won’t.” — SWAPA Leadership, The SWAPA Number Podcast (July 1)"

"As you’ll be aware, 2025 Brent strip is at around $75 per barrel, and other commodities and prices, including refining margins, are under pressure. Were these prices to play out, the rule of thumb impact in 2025 would be around $4 billion – but that’s a price call that we don’t know at this stage. — BP Q2 2024 Earnings Call"

"Growth is everywhere... As for CeraVe, it recorded a 39% growth, becoming number one in cleansing and body in the dermocosmetics market. Growth is everywhere at 25% in the US and 61% internationally. — Myriam Cohen-Welgryn, President, Dermatological Beauty Division, L'Oréal, Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 9, 2024"

"So [the customer] can basically pay a financer monthly, and the financer obviously pays Samsara directly upfront. So Samsara recognizes that revenue or that purchase immediately, while the [customer] and the financer have the kind of payment relationship. — Former Samsara Senior Account Executive (Tegus Interview, 11/10/22)"

"If you look at our TSR performance since July of 2022, when I moved into the CEO position, TSR has been something like 66%, 65%, again, higher than the basket of our refining peers, higher than the S&P Energy Index as well. And so all of those metrics are firm and indisputable. — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, March 18, 2025"

""We will come for you, for your assets and we will make the environment you live in difficult." — UK security minister. "The NCA’s use of UWOs may ... also [have been] causing considerable nervousness about past dealings that may come back to haunt them." — Anna Bradshaw, AML expert and partner with Peters & Peters, London."

"“This is a huge black eye for Intuit because you’re going to question their entire system.” — Infuriated marketing executive quoted in New York Post. “Have they implemented the same policies and procedures at all portfolio companies? Is it a back door into the parent company?” — Ron Geffner, former SEC enforcement attorney."

"Activist Investor Irenic Builds Stake in Forward Air — THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Activist Ancora Pushes Forward Air to Pursue Sale — THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Alta Fox Calls for Immediate Strategic Review at Forward Air Corporation — Alta Fox. Forward Air retains investment bankers to sell company, sources say — FREIGHTWAVES."

""According to the 'Capital Increase Agreement', Hexie Anlang (和谐安朗) will subscribe for 10.00% of Xin'ai Sports' equity at 300 million yuan, corresponding to the new registered capital of Xin'ai Sports of 12 million yuan, and the excess of 288 million yuan will be included in Xin'ai Sports Capital Reserve" — Auditor's Letter"

"“...in June 2015, after Skymoons Interactive and IQ's mobile game ‘Journey of the Flower’ was launched, Snail Digital received reports from players about the game. After conducting a comparison, its staff found numerous instances where the game ‘Journey of the Flower’ plagiarized content from ‘Taiji Panda.’” — Snail Digital"

"According to Abramge's complaint, Defendant Stryker, a Michigan corporation, masterminded an "illicit scheme, which was planned and run from Michigan, designed to increase its market share by making improper payments and paying bribes and kickbacks to Brazilian doctors to induce the use of Stryker products." — Court Opinion"

"Our contracts generally take four to nine months to complete — Prospectus May 4, 2018. Our smaller average project size and shorter duration contracts provides us greater stability in our financial results without large surprises from megaprojects or long periods of working through underperforming jobs. — Q4'18 Dec 11, 2018"

""...[for] the others, like MultiPlan, it’s just a business. They neglected the member side of it, and the member sensitivity, whereas Naviguard is very engaged with the member about the explanation of benefits. It’s not just they get the bill and there’s some black box." — Senior Executive at a Top-Five National Health Plan"

"“But then, six months in, I started to notice that the implants were not comparing to the outcomes we were getting from the trials. I started seeing it and then, the company started seeing it. We weren’t getting the results that we thought we were going to get.” — Former Nevro district sales manager, now at a key competitor"

"the trend has been going down...three years ago I thought we were going to be using it a lot more and it dropped into the low single digits in this timespan...we're involved in all these different cooler trials...and we're getting the same distance benefits from those coolers as well. — Transplant cardiologist at Vanderbilt"

""They did that for a reason, because the Joint Value I discussed. They were worried people would go, 'wait a minute, now your just placing the robots, in return for cases.' So you're wiping out the million dollar price tag and your getting cases off it. It's a way to fool the numbers a little bit." — Former Mako Salesperson"