Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

""The Company has agreed to purchase the necessary equipment to manufacture the products for Stryker on an exclusive basis. Payment terms are as agreed in that certain Supply Agreement between the Parties, dated as of January 1, 2021. Stryker is eligible to receive price reductions as the products transfer." — UFPT 8K filing"

"They are not Ushio sources...I know they have a different light source...I know they announced the Urashima source. That's what I've heard it called. I've heard Isteq thrown around as the creator of the IP for that source. — Ushio field engineer who maintains light sources on Lasertec ACTIS A150 machines at Intel Oregon fab"

"Avery’s former Audit Committee Chair (and current member) Peter K. Barker has had an illustrious career. His biography in Avery’s financial filings fails to highlight his role at Stone Energy Corp (“Stone”), a Company that was investigated by the SEC and did a complete financial restatement through the time of his arrival."

"We believe Skechers' stock price has been largely driven by outsized China growth. Absent the China story, we believe Skechers is “just” a moderate growth, “fast follower” shoe company that will likely never be able to compete with the performance athletic shoe companies that have vastly larger markets and stronger brands."

"We find it remarkable that Samsara has continued to trade at a premium valuation despite embodying all the attributes that have traditionally resulted in valuation multiple discounts: SMB focus, hardware business, and communications focus. Thus, we expect Samsara’s eventual multiple compression will be particularly severe."

"Spruce Point believes there is little margin for error in food manufacturing, since the slightest mistake can cause contamination, illness, and even death. The repercussions could be long-lasting and tarnish the manufacturer's brand. We've noticed a recent uptick in product recall notices by Saputo, particularly in Canada."

"BR recently struck an annually recurring statement that it processed approximately 80% of the outstanding shares in the U.S. in the performance of its proxy services. It has replaced this statement with a hard figure of 700 million equity proxy positions. BR’s change of language could suggest it has lost core market share."

"In the Company’s August 2021 investor presentation, PGNY uses the fictional treatment scenarios of “Sarah” to highlight the scary downsides of conventional treatment paths and the superior outcomes achieved through its more intensive treatment protocol. However, we believe PGNY’s pitch contains numerous misrepresentations."

"It's a bit of a quagmire because they announced a PDN study with the potential for a new indication. Well, the physician community is using it for that anyhow. Okay, maybe if the physician community is reimbursed for it, but they're coding funky anyhow. I don't know how much of an uptick it's going to give them in revenue."

"Spruce Point has serious concerns with Mr. Starrett who has served on the Board since 2010. Mr. Starrett's biography fails to disclose that he served on both the Boards of AFC Enterprises (Nasdaq: AFCE) from 1998 – 2005 and The Pantry (Nasdaq: PTRY) from 1999 – 2006 during the period when a financial restatements occurred."

"“He’s [Bill Ackman] saying that somehow the company is insular and that people stick around forever, and the people that have worked for me have been around the company for a long, long time. What he’s not aware of is that my team is almost entirely new from the time I became CEO.” — Carlos Rodriguez (CNBC August 10, 2017)"

""It's all a question of what Time Inc.'s revenue growth potential is and how they see their business model evolving, and how stable are Time Inc.'s revenues going forward. Can Time Inc. be a killer brand online? If not, they'd better figure out ways to harvest cash from cost-cutting." — Richard Greenfield, research analyst"

"To assess the inspection capability of the High-NA ACTIS A3XX, we performed imaging simulations using a rigorous optical simulator with electromagnetic calculations with conditions of circular illumination and a standard TaBn-based absorber with a thickness of 70 nm. — Lasertec technical paper (SPIE Conference Proceedings)"

"“A standard full-time employee at Amgen that is asked with the idea of using Berkeley Lights for a process that he has done for 10 years, there is a very strong hesitation. I can say that with 100% confidence... There's very, very strong hesitation because it is complex. I can tell you that for a fact.” — Amgen employee #1"

"In its interim report published in late November 2016, Huishan announced that it deliberately lowered milk yields to 7.8 tons “to further reduce the cost of raw milk and control our production volume.” — Huishan Announcement of Interim Results for the Six Months Ended September 30, 2016 (published 29 November 2016), p. 41."

""The overwhelming majority of Herbalife Distributors who pursue the business opportunity make little or no money, and a substantial percentage lose money." — 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."

"Zillow sends termination letters to ~90% of the Premier Agents not selected for Flex. What do they do now? — Spruce Point Capital Management. I've gotten horrific emails from people that these are professionals, better homes and gardens. Zillow sucks is the subject line going out to thousands of agents. — Zillow Flex Agent"

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

"So the airlines are not going to be married to one solution, right? Airlines want digital identity to operate like credit card POS type of settlement processes. Airlines don't want to run a Digital ID program. They don't want to own the identity, they don't want to manage the reputational risk, etc. — Former CLEAR Employee"

"Dynetics and SDA showing in results. With a combined $376 million in revenue contribution during the quarter, the Dynetics and SDA acquisitions continue to prove to be a source of significant growth during the pandemic, especially as Dynetics remains well positioned with DoD priorities. — Baird Equity Research, Nov 2, 2020"

"We believe PGNY's intimation that “Sarah” suffered a miscarriage due to the lack of PGT is marketing fluff. We believe PGNY is capitalizing on patients' (often reasonable) assumption that the increasing use of new technologies must improve health outcomes. Once again, the actual science does not fully support their claim."

"Chinook, in our opinion, improperly recorded collaboration and licensing revenues from SanReno in 2021 and 2022. This seems to have been an intentional mischaracterization to create the false impression that Chinook’s pipeline, especially atrasentan, can be easily monetized and generate repeatable and sustainable revenue."

"The reporter (appears to be a physician) “assessed acute arterial hypertension as serious and the causality with pitolisant as possibly related”; “although the event is confounded by methylphenidate, for which increased blood pressure is labeled, an association with (b)(6) cannot be ruled out and is assessed as possible.”"

"The ~20 field visits our investigators made to Lasertec’s Innovation Park indicate that management’s claims are false with no evidence of R&D, production, assembly, testing; no evidence that Fab 4A is operational or even a completed clean room; no evidence of other clean rooms or a second phase of construction for Fab 4B."

"Mr. Müller: How much profit did Mr. Müller and Mr. Ströer make from the initial public offering? - Zero. Simple answer! Back then we even took out a loan to buy shares, partly on the advice of our banks, but also because we were convinced that was a good investment. So the profit from the initial public offering was zero."

"[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"

"[T]hose quantities of oil and gas, which ... can be estimated with reasonable certainty to be economically producible ... under existing economic conditions [...] [E]conomically producible ... a resource which generates revenue that exceeds, or is reasonably expected to exceed, the costs of the operation. — SEC Definition"

""There's a lot. A lot of genres haven't been explored here." — Andrew Paradise (CEO, Skillz) in Forbes. "We are excited to partner with such a well-known and storied brand, now, everyone around the world can compete for cash and glory with the Big Buck Hunter mobile app powered by Skillz." — Andrew Paradise (CEO, Skillz)."

"MW: “Does all the non-cash HLBV income related to the ITC get reversed later, and how long does it take to be reversed?” HASI: “So I think hypothetically if you were to kind of hold everything about a project constant, yeah you would see that amount reverse over time.” — Conversation with HASI investor relations, May 2022"

"Now SRS, they're talking to either customer set. As I said early, they have 130,000 different customers. They're calling on more, you know, the roofer, the pool installer, the hardscape installer, the landscape professional. All those Pros, as we've said for ages, almost all Pros shop at Home Depot. — CEO on SRS deal call"

"“…the goal has always been to build what I would characterize as a good business… In terms of how we get there, it’s really in many ways the way that we’ve gotten from where we were, to the point we’re at right now… that’s probably the way we’re going to operate the business.” — Hugh F. Johnston, Disney CFO, February 2024"

"Overall, we find that closed-end PERE [private equity real estate] funds have underperformed listed REITs, even before adjusting for risk, leverage, illiquidity, and the uncertain investment timing associated with unfunded capital commitments. — University of Florida study, published in the Journal of Portfolio Management"

""Stryker had a big inventory problem anyway, before COVID, where we were sitting on piles and piles of inventory in certain business segments. But then after COVID struck and it was very important that we saved cash flow and that we try not have too much inventory in the system." — Former Stryker Supply Chain Professional"

"[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"

"“We’ve done a lot of livers that other people were not willing to consider, and that’s how we’ve been able to power our program forward. That’s what I mean by pushing the limits—using organs that no one else would have otherwise ever used and had not been used before.” — Transplant surgeon at a high volume academic center"

"From a product and tech perspective, I was very concerned with a few of the earlier acquisitions. Lightspeed ecommerce was a very challenging product and very difficult to onboard. Shopify's claim to fame is to have your ecommerce shop up and running within minutes, for Lightspeed it's not the same. — Former LSPD Employee"

""Those on Wall Street cannot resume taking risks without regard for the consequences, and expect that next time, American taxpayers will be there to break the fall." — President Obama. "For a market to function, those who invest and lend in that market must believe that their money is actually at risk." — President Obama."

"“it’s very complex and very, very expensive...multiple millions...it uses pressure and then they try to suck it back up...it releases particles into the cavity of the optics...that’s the number one source of particle generation that they have.” — Former KLA executive in a leadership role in their EUV mask inspection group"

"The Capital and Business “Alliance” announced by Keisei and Aeon in October 2024 appears to be both economically unattractive and commercially pointless for Keisei – the hallmarks of an arrangement to place more Keisei shares in the hands of cross-shareholders to support this cycle of self-serving management entrenchment"

"The extraordinary deficiencies in Muddy Waters' "proof" and "analysis" – including presenting information for the wrong customer, failing to investigate and report publicly available information, and failing to make follow-up inquiries with CCME – naturally casts doubt both on their capabilities and/or their objectivity."

"…We find many of your responses to the shareholders’ concerns to be misleading, self serving, and defensive…Given the inconsistencies in many of your recent communications, we expect that the shareholders would welcome Elliott’s nominees to the Board to ensure proper and timely execution and to avoid risk of backsliding."

"AMR uses a discount rate for certain pension obligations near 2.6%, its weighted average financing lease expense is 9.6%, and its Term-Loan interest cost is 10%. Using these range of assumptions for its incremental borrowing cost, we estimate that AMR’s “Hidden” Interest-Bearing debt obligations are $138 to $690 million."

"iRhythm claimed that the three consultant reports were privileged because they were prepared in anticipation of a potential whistleblower lawsuit by a regulatory compliance employee. The court recently ruled in favor of the government on the discovery fight related to the third-party reports, though iRhythm has appealed."

"Coca-Cola is an iconic world-wide American brand that also depends on its “trade secret” formula and brand equity. To put WD-40’s extreme valuation in perspective, we compare the two. Not only does Coca-Cola have broader diversification, but also significantly higher margins and growth potential despite being 88x larger."

"We appreciate that Disney's studio operations are critical to sustaining a durable competitive advantage, and we do not want to do anything to jeopardize Disney's creative output, but it is imperative that Disney's content strategy strikes the right balance between creative risk-taking and maximizing return on investment"

"When we examine the assumed useful lives of customer lists/relationships for SMB SaaS acquisitions or acquirers' general policies (i.e., not specific to a single transaction), we find that the average of the values/mid-points yields 5.8 years, which represents greater than 50% discounts to the assumptions used by Intuit."

"We believe the market wildly overvalues the entirety of BR by not considering that 40% of its business is tied to low/no margin distribution revenue and services such as credit statement printing. Its gross margins and capex spending (due to aggressive capitalization of costs) are vastly below financial technology peers."

"REZI has been talking up its growing relationship with home builders for the First Alert smoke detector business. However, based on our research interview of a former executive familiar with the business, it is a narrower product opportunity which depends on larger volumes and carries less margin than the retail channel."

"Spruce Point has developed concerns over the Company’s aggressive accounting practices, several connections to high-profile actual and alleged fraud cases (e.g. an Enron spin-off, Qwest Communications, and Granite Construction) among its board, and its CFO who was previously sued over an alleged breach of fiduciary duty."

"We identify at least four factors that are temporarily inflating OCF by an estimated 67%-78%. We also point out numerous errors and inconsistencies with management's figures. We believe at best, these are just sloppy errors, and at worst case these are intentional acts by management to obscure its strains from investors."

"it's pretty quiet overall... what I'm not hearing people say, when can I get my hands on Vykat? Because we all know diazoxide, and we all know the problems with it. It's not like we're clueless. I'll put it this way...this somewhat surprising and out of the blue approval that I don't think any of us were quite expecting."

"We are short CTO Realty Growth (CTO) because we believe this management team, like our old friends at B. Riley (RILY), are lying to investors about the sustainability of their dividend while enriching themselves and are willing to engage in accounting shenanigans like using a sham loan to cover up a top tenant’s failure."

"We have consistently re-set record sales and record profits on a month after month, quarter after quarter basis for the last 18 months to where we used to be a very small portion of the business and now we are a very meaningful portion of the business — Tom Rugg, president of energy solutions, Milwaukee Business Journal."

"Additionally, we may be unable to identify investors interested in engaging in this type of (tax equity) financing with us. As of December 31, 2021, we have formed 17 tax equity vehicles to which investors such as banks and other large financial investors have committed to invest approximately $1.2 billion — Sunnova 10-K"

"MPS had an innovation edge about fifteen years ago that made their process much cheaper and they built a business based on that, but right now it’s limiting them from getting into the higher end business and the low end business, has been kind of eaten up by the Chinese. — PhD Electrical Engineering, Former MPWR Engineer"

"“your answer is totally garbled”: “your entire computation breaks down after a few steps”; “your chances of getting the right answer diminish very, very quickly” — Anonymous ex-employees and experts; “for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years”; “I just don’t see how it’s going to work.” — Leading expert and friend of the founders"

"And I would just add, John, that with a really strong balance sheet, no debt, every comp store in the chain is contributing positive EBITDA. We're in a really nice situation, particularly compared to 8 years ago when that wasn't the case and maybe we did have to slow that a little bit or chose to slow that? — CFO Watkins"

"You will also see in our compensation discussion and analysis in our annual circular that in 2018 management is now compensated on cash flow in addition to revenue and EBITDA. And that'll be a friendly reminder to everyone on the leadership team to pay attention to that. — Maxar CEO Lance Q4'17 Conference Call (Feb 2018)"

"“On a quarterly basis, comparable tenant sales rose a healthy 7.5% year-over-year, with momentum picking up over the course of the quarter. January 2010 comparable sales increased 2.5% year-over-year, with February and March showing accelerating increases of 6.0% and 10.0%, respectively.” — GGP Q1’10 Operating Supplement"

"The acquired E&I business contributed revenues of $443.9 million and net earnings of $34.1 million from September 21, 2022 to December 31, 2022. The acquired businesses contributed revenues of $72.8 million and net earnings of $4.8 million from their respective acquisition dates to December 31, 2022. — 2022 Annual Report"