Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

""Smart devices and implants will play a big role in orthopaedics and we are excited for OrthoSensor to join Stryker as we continue to innovate and advance smart sensor technologies, including intraoperative sensors, wearables and smart implants across our joint replacement business." — Stryker (Jan 5, 2021)"

""The number of large media buyers and sellers in the market is finite, and it could be difficult for us to replace the losses from any buyers or sellers whose relationships with us diminish or terminate. Because of these factors, we seek to expand and diversify our client relationships." — Rubicon 2017-2019"

"“Absolutely. Literally, I had to laugh because I had documents in my possession where if you took the logo off, it was the exact same verbiage, the exact same formatting on a page – it was kind of scary.” — Former ADESA Director and Operations Manager at CarMax, 20+ years auto industry operations experience"

"A tank storing frozen human embryos and eggs at Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco had failed...On Thursday, after more than three years of litigation in federal court, a jury in California awarded five of the patients who lost embryos and eggs a combined $15 million in damages. — The Washington Post"

"Like driving cross country in first gear, pushing a glider with mosquito wings, and sending a carrier pigeon versus email. — Propulsion experts. You can't get anywhere fast with electric propulsion...using [electric propulsion] as part of rideshare? People talk about it, but no one uses it. — Launch broker."

""I ran into that the minute I started here where as a fiduciary of Joyn, I said, 'Okay, I want to do this as cost-effectively as possible,' and when I saw how much Ginkgo was charging, I went out and found another vendor who charges about 40% of what Ginkgo wants to charge us." — Senior employee at Joyn Bio"

"We did not pull forward any sales at all.... I think that is just the nature of the acceleration of adoption of the product is really with what we are seeing, there is no pulling forward of shipments to do anything, other than react to the demand — GMCR Management, GMCR Q2 2011 earnings call on May 3, 2011."

"Sometimes things end up with public companies and public real estate investment funds, and they don't necessarily invest the capital to keep them refreshed. The sidewalks get broken, buildings' color changes. You have to go out there and invest the money to do the upkeep. — Karahan (quoted in Local Profile)"

"When it was acquired, Cedar delisted its publicly traded common stock and paid Cedar common stockholders for their shares. Yet Cedar's preferred stock remained outstanding, and its holders received nothing from the transactions. Meanwhile, the value of those preferred shares tanked. — 4th Circuit of appeals"

"You then said you had an investigation conducted by Ernst & Young (EY). This is the same company that prepared the annual financial statements. What did you expect? That they would come forward and say, Oops, sorry, we've made a mistake, we're returning our auditor's licence to practice? This is laughable."

"Karl's significant experience transforming independent E&P companies and operating a global portfolio of conventional and unconventional assets, as well as his track record of value creation across exploration, production, midstream, marketing and private equity will add significant value to the Hess Board"

"INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS OF VALEANT AND ALLERGAN ARE URGED TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT(S), REGISTRATION STATEMENT, PROSPECTUS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY IN THEIR ENTIRETY IF AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE AS THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION."

"Darden's current conglomerate model and inefficient asset ownership structure are preventing Darden from realizing its potential operating performance or maximizing long-term value for shareholders – we are excited to instill change at Darden for the benefit of all shareholders if our nominees are elected."

"Current investors are paying a significant premium to the Company’s historical valuation. Spruce Point finds it difficult to justify Kratos’ valuation expansion in light of its history of disappointment, unproven drone opportunities, questionable business practices, shrinking backlog, and rising cash burn."

"Monster's Australian filings show increased financial strain. While Monster was publicly referencing “timing of sales into bottlers,” “shipping delays” and “severe flooding” its financial reports indicate it either lost a major customer (or they consolidated into one larger customer) between 2021 and 2022."

"Stifel's $29 price target and "Buy" recommendation illustrates that analysts and investors are expecting expansion of the Amazon relationship. Barclays as well believes Amazon sales will be stable for the next few quarters, and acknowledges the big downside risk. We believe the market will be disappointed."

"BR has experienced multiple expansion over the past few years, while the evidence shows its cash flow has deteriorated, it has a shrinking ecosystem and greater customer concentration, has failed to deliver on the UBS project in a timely manner, and may be under increasing regulatory scrutiny from the SEC."

"Spruce Point believes that the overwhelming macroeconomic events which have transpired since the deal was announced could render the business even less appealing at the current juncture, encouraging the buyers to pressure Forescout into renegotiating the deal, or even compelling them to walk away outright."

"Although NICE is larger than Verint on most metrics (revenue, EBITDA, EBIT) and more efficient (revenue per employee, EBIT per employee), average compensation per insider at Verint is over 3x that at NICE, and Verint insiders take home a far greater percentage of EBIT in compensation than do NICE insiders."

"Spruce Point believes there is rampant misunderstanding of CLEAR’s capital structure. Even Bloomberg fails to identify over $115 million of operating leases. However, we think the biggest disconnect is the multiple share classes that are convertible to Class A shares and the Tax Receivable Agreement (TRA)."

"The abstract states “no cardiovascular or other significant safety concern,” yet three patients on pitolisant had at least one prolonged QT interval >450 msec and 4 patients had at least one QTc longer than 60 msec - and one patient in the pitolisant group died due to cardiopulmonary failure (heart attack)"

"As this was a single dose, the steady state level after 7 days (with an accumulation ratio 2.3) is 122 ng/mL +/- 54 ng/mL, far higher than both the 73 ng/mL on the label and the 101 ng/mL in the 2007 pilot study - and indicates patients with 230 ng/mL and 284 ng/mL within two and three standard deviations."

"Each of these developments is unfortunate and places management’s full-year guidance at risk, in our view. The risk to earnings has obvious flow through implications to the company’s cash flow, which adds to concern given the company’s already challenged liquidity and balance sheet profile. — Goldman Sachs"

"“As a researcher, I can tell you that currently, the state of the technology is very, very infant. If I want to draw some parallel for you, essentially, the state of the technology looks the same way that normal computers looked 50 years ago.” — Physicist at Google working on their quantum computing effort"

"“America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again.” — Terrence Mann, “Field of Dreams” 1989"

"In September 2024, DND threatened to sue shareholders who collectively represent nearly 40% of the Company’s shares based on completely frivolous claims; the Board accused those shareholders to be in breach of U.K. and Australian national security regulations, which are entirely irrelevant — Engine Capital"

"In terms of her role, [redacted] was instructed directly by the CEO, Emily, that [redacted] should not disclose the operational business positions or details to her directly. She wants to be the only channel to talk to her on the business side.” — Ex-Twist employee involved with Twist’s activities in China"

"“The committee currently anticipates that economic conditions – including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run – are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through mid-2013” — Federal Reserve statement, August 2011"

"“DuPont’s inability to deliver on Kullman’s agenda suggests that she needs more help to overcome the 100+ years of history and the inertia that comes with that; Trian can be Kullman’s best ally. For shareowners, Trian’s impact is already very clear.” — CLSA “4Q14: Just the outlook” analyst report on DuPont"

"“DuPont’s inability to deliver on Kullman’s agenda suggests that she needs more help to overcome the 100+ years of history and the inertia that comes with that; Trian can be Kullman’s best ally. For shareowners, Trian’s impact is already very clear.” — CLSA “4Q14: Just the outlook” analyst report on DuPont"

"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. — Ex-KLA executive"

"A provision in an indenture with such an eviscerating effect on the stockholder franchise would raise grave concerns. In the first instance, those concerns would relate to the exercise of the board's fiduciary duties in agreeing to such a provision. — Delaware court in Amylin Pharmaceuticals (May 12, 2009)"

"‘there is no evidence that this add-on is effective and safe’ and that there is a ‘risk of misdiagnosing a healthy embryo’ as abnormal. HFEA also claims that PGT-A ‘can sometimes cause damage to the embryo and prevent it from developing once it has been transferred into the womb’ — HFEA., 2018, HFEA, 2020."

""In summary – we want you to elect a major shareholder to the board, in this case it would be me representing Pershing Square. We own 8.3% of the company… this has the effect of sending a very powerful message to the management and the board…" — Bill Ackman, "The Time is Now" Presentation, August 17, 2017*"

""Its really telephone collections" — Current Employee - Accounts Receivable Specialist in Raleigh, NC. "But nothing is worth the things Cintas will put you through. A sick monopoly game they are playing and they don't care who get screwed in the end." — AR representative for fire protection (Pittston, PA)."

"I just wanted to say, it’s not a cure...it’s an aide...this is just a tool that helps your loved one turn down the food noise......the drug isn’t going to help if you don’t work and keep your kid off sweeteners, sugars, sodas...in fact when we started months in I was doubting. — Parent on Vykat for 6 years"

""Subscription ARPU which excludes our transaction-based revenue stream increased by over 10% as more and more customers adopt functionality beyond the basic POS. And ARPU increase as a result of Payments grew significantly given the success we have had with driving Payments revenue." — CFO Nussey, May 2021"

"When patients become aware of the option of PAE vs AQUA, they choose PAE >80% of the time...many large urology groups are just now opening their own PAE suites and will preferably steer BPH patients to their ASC PAE suites rather than sending them to the hospital for Aqua. — Urodoc on Seekingalpha, 9/23/24"

"“the current situation is a stalemate” — Misawa (CFO). “we do not necessarily have an accurate grasp of the situation” — Misawa (CFO). “we believe that this will increase” — Misawa (CFO). “I think we will see...or rather, an increase in inventories” — Misawa (CFO). “minimum level forecast.” — Misawa (CFO)."

"“the current situation is a stalemate” — Misawa (CFO). “we do not necessarily have an accurate grasp of the situation” — Misawa (CFO). “we believe that this will increase” — Misawa (CFO). “I think we will see...or rather, an increase in inventories” — Misawa (CFO). “minimum level forecast.” — Misawa (CFO)."

"While Nuvei was promoting the acquisition of SafeCharge as transformative and creating a global leader with "massive scale and reach", the CEO of SafeCharge made statements to the local Israeli media saying the "market was saturated with competition and regulation", and that consolidation was a good move."

"Looking carefully, we see the UK subsidiary added a new "key source of estimation uncertainty" related to trade receivables. The Company disclosed a bad debt provision amounting to 5.5% of gross receivables. We observe this is materially higher than Generac's consolidated bad debts provision of just 1.5%."

"Mr. Winfield's investing track record also includes investing in Feihe International (also known as American Dairy, Inc - Nasdaq: ADY). Shortly after, ADY disclosed an SEC investigation, dismissed its public accountant, suspended its S-1 statement, and announced results from 2004-2006 would be re-audited."

"Because we believe that IPX may be challenged to meet the revenue expectations set by analysts (and they may never produce any revenue in one possible scenario), we believe the best way to evaluate the valuation is price to book value. On this metric, IPX’s share price appears to be materially overvalued."

"The former NRC Commissioner we interviewed described senior management as "Nuke Bros.," individuals who overhype the benefits of SMRs and possess Silicon Valley mindsets more suited to software development versus the challenges of navigating an uncompromising, capital intensive, highly technical industry."

"Unlike most bankruptcies where equity holders lose most, if not all, of their value, we believe GGP’s bankruptcy provides the ideal opportunity for a fair and equitable restructuring of the Company that preserves value for all constituents: secured lenders, unsecured lenders, employees, and equity holders"

"At DuPont’s 2013 Investor Day, management was not transparent about reducing margin targets, suggesting that reduced margin targets were correlated to the accounting change. Were DuPont’s independent directors aware of this? Trian’s nominees will seek to ensure that the board holds management accountable."

"At DuPont's 2013 Investor Day, management was not transparent about reducing margin targets, suggesting that reduced margin targets were correlated to the accounting change. Were DuPont's independent directors aware of this? Trian's nominees will seek to ensure that the board holds management accountable."

"By committing to purchase the Bertelsmann stake two years in the future at such a high value relative to the then-current economic performance of the business, AOL left itself exposed to both any potential shortfall in operating performance relative to such high expectations, as well as market volatility."

"Given the shifting nature of the Live Video strategy and very limited financial and KPI transparency for the segment, Spruce Point relied on 50 detailed Mandarin based interviews with members of the Live Stream Ecosystem (Agency/Broadcaster/Users/Advertisers) to develop a forward view of Momo’s prospects."

"Spruce Point believes that investors should take the CEO’s claims that SORT® will be a major contributor to revenue and EBITDA with a grain of salt. It is currently being given away for free. We believe that converting users accustomed to paying nothing into customers paying something is an uphill battle."

"At DuPont’s 2013 Investor Day, management was not transparent about reducing margin targets, suggesting that reduced margin targets were correlated to the accounting change. Were DuPont’s independent directors aware of this? Trian’s nominees will seek to ensure that the board holds management accountable."

"Stryker commands among the highest valuations in the medical device and technology space, reflecting investors belief that it is a proven acquiror worthy of a premium. However, we have provided ample evidence why we believe that narrative is no longer a defensible reason to own shares at this price level."

"In the following presentation Citron will show how Inogen along with its distribution network through legal and illegal tactics are committing elder abuse to sell portable oxygen concentrators for the highest price without proper disclosure of benefits to seniors at the most vulnerable time of their life."

"The analysis underscores the advice of multiple former Carvana executives we have interviewed to not confuse the company as anything other than "just a dealership" subject to the same (if not worse) constraints on growth as others within the industry now that it's being held accountable for profitability."

"Soleno has done a pretty good job of drumming that up with their informercials or whatever you want to call them...once it gets out there for a little bit and we get some more real-world data...who aren't screened and vetted...like a perfect fit for a clinical trial...I don't know what we're going to see."

"As a prescribing clinician, it is extra work, which is always a pain for us, which sounds weird as doctors, but to go through all this data and do that. No, you're absolutely right. In retrospect, could they be doing a better job with it? Absolutely correct. I can't argue with you. I can't argue with you."

"In other words, while Archer has been touting their relationship with the Air Force and a contract worth up to $148 million, the only verifiable amount that has been awarded is a total of approximately $34 million, with only $1.3 million out of a potential $110 million awarded from their biggest contract."

"In a recently published report titled, Iceberg Research notes that "Recent events have taken a dramatic turn at German eVTOL company Lilium (LILM), with management warning the company faces near-term insolvency... the real reason why Lilium is in this predicament is that it is a fraud." — Iceberg Research"

""Stack it high and watch it fly" — Canadian Tire Dealer. "We had strong revenue performance in the quarter and while we were left with some excess inventory versus last year, the vast majority of that has been shipped to dealers in Q3." — Allan Angus MacDonald, EVP of Retail, Q2 2019 Call, August 8, 2019."