Callouts & quotes from 526+ activist slides

""The large variability in capex versus original guidance (just set six months ago) demonstrates some lack of capital discipline within the company." — Citigroup (July 25, 2012); "On the upstream side, we question whether the company has the bandwidth to operate in over 20 countries... We do not believe a company of Hess's size will get credit in the market for a shotgun approach to investing across the world." — Citigroup (July 20, 2012); "The key issue for HES in our mind is capital intensity and the inability of management in recent years to live within the limits of its cash flows. Furthermore, given the lack of growth in oil and gas production over the last 5 years, there is a case to be made that the company should return more cash back to shareholders instead of attempting to grow at all." — Citigroup (July 20, 2012); "We are skeptical that Hess's current global growth strategy will yield superior returns or growth, as its organization appears to be spread thin and we think it is unlikely that Hess can have a competitive advantage in all the areas it is pursuing." — Goldman Sachs (June 11, 2012); "We believe Hess should consider further reducing its exploration program beyond what has already been announced. It is not clear to us given the levels of exploration spending versus cash flows that a mid-sized oil company can successfully pursue a global exploration strategy as Hess has attempted... The company's high-risk/high-potential exploration and acreage strategy since 2009 is thus far not yielding favorable results." — Goldman Sachs (June 11, 2012); "The 7% pullback in the stock was severe, and in our view, is indicative of a loss of investor confidence in HES's execution capabilities, following a string of production misses and a lack of notable exploration success, in addition to a growing deficit between capex and cash flow. Entering 1Q'12, HES had missed its production guidance for four of the preceding 5 quarters, meaning execution was at a premium." — Simmons (April 26, 2012); "Although we think the company's underlying asset value is worth significantly higher than our near-term price target, we now believe the shares will likely continue to struggle throughout this year and will trade substantially below our estimate of its fair asset value due to the lack of visible catalysts as well increased investor skepticism over management's execution record..." — Barclays (April 26, 2012)"

""In exchange for releasing John Orr from his non-compete agreement with CP, Norfolk agreed to a one-time payment to CP of $25 million and also agreed to make "certain commercial and operational considerations related to the Meridian Speedway and the Meridian Terminal". These payments and concessions deserve scrutiny, in our view, given the potential competitive implications." — Deutsche Bank. "CP and Keith Creel look great on this trade... they're absorbing [Orr's] prior role into existing management (i.e., no cost to replace), while more importantly winning both a ~$25M payout from NS and commercial concessions related to NS's Meridian Speedway... While we don't know the specifics or value of the Meridian Speedway concessions, clearly they could be meaningful on this longer term Mexico-to-Southeast growth investment for CP and CSX connected by GWR." — Susquehanna. "Net net, we're underwhelmed by what we observed yesterday with respect to NSC's announcement. While John Orr is considered a good operator, it appears the cost to extract him from CP is notable and could have longer-lasting competitive implications, which is unfortunate in the context of the clear alternative. So in this sense, yesterday's announcement raises more questions than answers." — Deutsche Bank. "The bottom line is the cost of NSC's new COO appears higher than the headline would suggest. In addition to the $25 million one-time payment, it could also include capex to elongate sidings and concessions that lead to less volume for NSC and more volume for CP and CSX. More details and transparency is needed, in our view, given the company could have hired Jamie Boychuk with no concessions, who we consider to be best suited to be the COO of NSC given his long and successful track record." — Deutsche Bank. "Norfolk also provided some details on the Meridian Speedway agreement with CPKC that caused a significant amount of confusion and frustration over the last several weeks. We believe the management team already missed a few opportunities to clarify this issue ... Ultimately, Norfolk did not quantify the full cost so management will still have to address this issue on the 1Q24 earnings call, especially if the operating momentum does not continue to accelerate" — J.P. Morgan."

"We reviewed your firm's response and concluded that it is not adequate. Your response states that your firm's process about when to escalate a CAPA to an HHE [health hazard evaluation] was not clear. As such, CAPA procedural updates were made, and training was performed. Specifically, you updated your CAPA to include the statement, "The issue will be assessed... [in accordance with the Health Hazard Evaluation Procedure], to determine if the criteria for an HHE has been met, and whether field action is required." Your firm also conducted an HHE for the Activation Time Mismatch error, as required by your CAPA procedures. In addition, your firm conducted several other HHEs. It is important that the HHE be performed in accordance with your firm's Risk Management SOP (00010) because the outcome of the HHE is used to determine some of your firm's corrective and/or preventative actions. However, based on FDA's own calculations, these HHEs do not appear to be conducted in accordance with your Risk Management SOP (SOP0010). For example, when conducting HHE-[redacted], it appears your firm failed to properly calculate the probability of occurrence of the potential safety issue. Your miscalculation underestimated the likelihood of someone being injured. According to your updated CAPA procedure, the difference in the occurrence rating for HHE-[redacted] would have required an update to your risk documentation and the HHE shows that this was not selected. Further, when conducting HHE-[redacted], your firm failed to apply the Health Risk Table in your Risk Management SOP (SOP0010). This miscalculation is significant because this HHE procedure is used to assess whether or not you will initiate field action. — FDA Warning Letter Dated 5/25/23 (CMS 643474)"

"“We find it odd management believes value can be created by separating the business into two mature companies... We think one of the most interesting statements in the Darden release was the following one: ‘A spin-off will also allow us to target our efforts and investments on value creation opportunities that may be material to a stand-alone Red Lobster but not to Darden overall.’ Management did not elaborate on this value-creation opportunity during the conference call, but we believe monetizing the real estate Red Lobster owns may be impactful for shareholders.” — KeyBanc, December 20, 2013; “On the day Darden’s strategic plan was announced, the stock closed down 4% to $51. This didn’t exactly strike us as a vote of confidence in management’s plan to create value. Two days later, Starboard Value announced a 5.5% position in the company and the stock rallied 6%. For the most part, the stock has traded sideways since then, until rallying 3% on the news that Starboard retained former Olive Garden president Brad Blum to serve as an advisor in its battle against Darden. The takeaway from stock action and, in our opinion, sentiment since 12/20/13 is the stock rallies when there is movement toward replacing management and sells off when management publicly digs their heels in.” — Hedgeye, February 24, 2014; “Moving forward with Red Lobster sale or spin. Unless the separation helps drive a significant improvement in operating results, we don’t envision this being very accretive to valuation. Mgmt has previously stated standalone RL will do mid-to high single-digit EBIT growth, a target that appears aggressive.” — Oppenheimer, March 3, 2014"

""We believe the status quo at NSC will lead to continued underperformance of the railroad. We also believe that Board refreshment and Jim Barber's and Jamie Boychuk's leadership are essential for enhancing safety and for ensuring outstanding long-term achievements for the benefit of all NSC's shareholders and other stakeholders." — EdgePoint Investment Group; "[W]e believe a change in management and refreshment of the board at NSC are warranted and could stimulate improved operations and thus equity performance. For these reasons, we intend to support the election of dissident nominees Betsy Atkins, James Barber, Jr., William Clyburn, Jr., Sameh Fahmy, John Kasich, Gilbert Lamphere, and Allison Landry." — Neuberger Berman; "Important from yesterday's town hall was commentary that PSR implementation is going to be slower than what we saw at CSX given in our view changes to the regulatory environment and the proposed management team's focus on the customer [...] Overall, we view this plan as contrasting heavily against Norfolk's Resilience Model and expect headcount reduction can be achieved on the back of attrition, in addition to head office cuts." — RBC Capital Markets note issued on April 19th; "NSC's activist campaign appears to have unanimous support from institutional investors." — Deutsche Bank Research note issued on April 15th; "We see value in potential management change with Jim Barber as CEO and Jamie Boychuk as COO as proposed by the activist investor Ancora, especially given the historical margin underperformance of Norfolk Southern." — Barclays Equity Research note issued on March 25th"

""The data does not support the board's argument that the integrated strategy results in superior returns over the long-term..." — ISS; "In a campaign inextricably predicated on the notion that P66's asset mix is a favorable differentiator, the board's inability to draw what we consider to be a strong, straightforward throughline to shareholder value is a bust." — Glass Lewis; "Phillips 66's current conglomerate structure appears to be suboptimal for sustained financial growth." — Egan-Jones; "PSX has established a track record of providing selective and ambiguous disclosure that obfuscates results, makes it difficult to assess decisions, and creates impediments to evaluating performance." — ISS; "These issues stack on what we consider to be fairly disconcerting corporate governance considerations, including a dubious commitment to good faith engagement, a questionable and counterproductive realignment of key oversight roles and a late-stage candidate pivot which seems to call into question the board's prior candor. These issues should, in our view, be of significant concern to P66 investors." — Glass Lewis; "Currently, the Company has a combined Chairman and CEO leadership structure, a classified board, and over-tenured directors. A plethora of these problematic governance practices appear to be a driving force in the Company's underperformance." — Egan-Jones"

"[...] we believe a change in management and refreshment of the board at NSC are warranted and could stimulate improved operations and thus equity performance. For these reasons, we intend to support the election of dissident nominees Betsy Atkins, James Barber, Jr., William Clyburn, Jr., Sameh Fahmy, John Kasich, Gilbert Lamphere, and Allison Landry. — Neuberger Berman; We see value in potential management change with Jim Barber as CEO and Jamie Boychuk as COO as proposed by the activist investor Ancora... especially given the historical margin underperformance of Norfolk Southern. — Barclays; We believe the status quo at NSC will lead to continued underperformance of the railroad. We also believe that Board refreshment and Jim Barber's and Jamie Boychuk's leadership are essential for enhancing safety and for ensuring outstanding long-term achievements for the benefit of all NSC's shareholders and other stakeholders. — EdgePoint Investment Group; It appears NSC is making the case that changing the Board and management would pose significant risk to service and safety. But in reality, NSC has already endured the most service and safety challenges in recent years, including the unfortunate events of East Palestine last year, and defective chassis across its network that impacted service and posed safety risks in 2021. — Deutsche Bank"

""It’s rare to see a device not working at all, but I’ve seen with Nevro at 6 months that it’s not helping patients." -KOL; "The biggest reason for Nevro explants is device failure. That’s probably the biggest reason, over 80-90%. And then infection rates. But it’s almost always failure. Anecdotally and from the data there’s a range, but it seems to be within about a year. But some of them fail later, within three years." -KOL; "High frequency seemed to have a lot of traction when it first started off. We’re trying to figure out if the initial pain improvement is still there, a year out, two years out, five years out. It seems like a lot of the high frequency implants have been explanted, or exchanged for something else." -KOL; "Abbott is currently doing a study called Prolong. The study’s not specifically going up against Nevro. It’s just using the Abbott device as a salvage therapy for failed spinal cord stimulation patients. But, most of the salvage appears to be for Nevro patients. I think almost 50% of the enrollment so far in the study has been Nevro patients. Abbott’s study was never meant to be a superiority study. The study wasn’t meant to bash Nevro. But Nevro didn’t like that the overwhelming majority of patients that needed to be salvaged in the study were all theirs." -KOL"

"Operating performance has been disappointing, particularly when considered alongside management's messaging...PSX has not been able to sustain improvements or contend with market volatility effectively. — ISS, May 12, 2025; In a campaign inextricably predicated on the notion that P66's asset mix is a favorable differentiator, the board's inability to draw what we consider to be a strong, straightforward throughline to shareholder value is a bust. — Glass Lewis, May 10, 2025; Phillips 66's current conglomerate structure appears to be suboptimal for sustained financial growth. We agree with [Elliott] that a strategic shift towards refocusing on its core assets, particularly within the refining segment, is necessary to drive improved performance and value creation. — Egan-Jones, May 1, 2025; PSX has established a track record of providing selective and ambiguous disclosure that obfuscates results, makes it difficult to assess decisions, and creates impediments to evaluating performance. — ISS, May 12, 2025; The board's [decision to combine the Chair and CEO roles] evidences a disconnect from shareholders, and undermines the argument about its commitment to ensuring strong corporate governance and board oversight. — ISS, May 12, 2025"

""In terms of exploration and production, we are different than the other independents. We are the most global." — John Hess, Chairman & CEO Hess, June 2010. "We want to maintain our global presence and our global reach because we believe that the globe provides many opportunities now and will also in the future. So we want to maintain that global scale and capability." — Gregory Hill, EVP Worldwide E&P Hess, November 2012. "We are skeptical that Hess's current global growth strategy will yield superior returns or growth, as its organization appears to be spread thin and we think it is unlikely that Hess can have a competitive advantage in all the areas it is pursuing." — Goldman Sachs, June 11, 2012. "On the upstream side, we question whether the company has the bandwidth to operate in over 20 countries...We do not believe a company of Hess's size will get credit in the market for a shotgun approach to investing across the world...Running such a diverse, global operation is challenging and given the size of the company it is not apparent that HES gains any incremental value from its integration and diversity. We believe this level of diversity has diminishing margins of return for investors." — Citigroup, June 20, 2012."

"“We analyze proposals for the separation of Chair/CEO on a case-by-case basis taking into consideration numerous factors, including the appointment of and role played by a lead director, a company's performance, and the overall governance structure of the company.” — State Street. “The funds also support independent leadership in the boardroom. That may take the form of an independent chair or a lead independent director. Regardless of title, the role's responsibilities should be robust and clearly defined through company disclosure” — Vanguard. “In general, Fidelity believes that boards should have a process and criteria for selecting the board chair, and will oppose shareholder proposals calling for, or recommending the appointment of, a non-executive or independent chairperson. If, however, based on particular facts and circumstances, Fidelity believes that appointment of a non-executive or independent chairperson appears likely to further the interests of shareholders and promote effective oversight of management by the board of directors, Fidelity will consider voting to support a proposal for an independent chairperson under such circumstance” — Fidelity."

"We analyze proposals for the separation of Chair/CEO on a case-by-case basis taking into consideration numerous factors, including the appointment of and role played by a lead director, a company's performance, and the overall governance structure of the company. — State Street. The funds also support independent leadership in the boardroom. That may take the form of an independent chair or a lead independent director. Regardless of title, the role's responsibilities should be robust and clearly defined through company disclosure — Vanguard. In general, Fidelity believes that boards should have a process and criteria for selecting the board chair, and will oppose shareholder proposals calling for, or recommending the appointment of, a non-executive or independent chairperson. If, however, based on particular facts and circumstances, Fidelity believes that appointment of a non-executive or independent chairperson appears likely to further the interests of shareholders and promote effective oversight of management by the board of directors, Fidelity will consider voting to support a proposal for an independent chairperson under such circumstance — Fidelity."

""In terms of exploration and production, we are different than the other independents. We are the most global." — John Hess, Chairman & CEO Hess, June 2010. "We want to maintain our global presence and our global reach because we believe that the globe provides many opportunities now and will also in the future. So we want to maintain that global scale and capability." — Gregory Hill, EVP Worldwide E&P Hess, November 2012. "We are skeptical that Hess's current global growth strategy will yield superior returns or growth, as its organization appears to be spread thin and we think it is unlikely that Hess can have a competitive advantage in all the areas it is pursuing." — Goldman Sachs, June 11, 2012. "On the upstream side, we question whether the company has the bandwidth to operate in over 20 countries... We do not believe a company of Hess's size will get credit in the market for a shotgun approach to investing across the world..." — Citigroup, July 20, 2012. "In multiple client conversations throughout the day we found literally no one that defended the shape, nor global strategy of Hess." — Deutsche Bank, January 30, 2013."

""the adoption of coal occurred over roughly five decades, and the shift from coal to oil took more than three decades. To limit global warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, we must ramp up renewables and other low-carbon solutions at warp speed. These energy sources must match the maximum shares held by coal (55%) and oil (41%) roughly three times as fast as those commodities did and ultimately should account for most primary energy by 2050-up to 70% in IEA's Net Zero Emissions scenario. This rapid transition remains a massive challenge and appears increasingly unlikely" — BCG, A blueprint for the energy transition (September 2023). "despite the progress in recent years, national commitments to reduce emissions collectively fall short of what is required by 2030 to bring global emissions down to a level in line with achieving net zero emissions by 2050. In addition, the various commitments are not yet underpinned by sufficiently strong and comprehensive policies to give confidence that they will be successfully delivered" — IEA, Net-Zero Roadmap - A global pathway to keep the 1.5° C goal in reach (September 2023)."

""People get used to high frequency. My hypothesis is that the neurons may re-learn and then the pain can come back." — KOL in Europe; "I've observed, when I and other doctors get together and talk about this, that patients tune out of high frequency faster than traditional stimulators. In one year the devices are all the same and the curves converge. There's no difference in efficacy. Maybe a little bit on the front end but it disappears by 12 months." — High volume implanter/KOL and Nevro user; "You can only beat on the spinal cord so long before a refractory response happens. Look at drugs – ones that effect the nervous system lead to tolerance. I'm saying it's just too much energy and you have to back off. Either the cells are down-regulating and can't hear the noise anymore, or there's an inflammatory response to high frequency and you get cell formation that's impeding the electrical signal." — KOL and former high volume Nevro implanter"

""At this point, Vivendi appears to be more of a liability than an asset for TIM... The declining relationship with the Italian government, the ever-present conflict of interest, and the fact that having a media company as de-facto controlling shareholder has apparently restricted TIM's strategic alternatives, all make a case for supporting Elliott's nominees." — ISS Special Situations Research, April 9, 2018; "On balance, we consider there is a dearth of redeeming commentary available in relation to Vivendi's continuing involvement with Telecom Italia..." — Glass Lewis Proxy Paper, April 7, 2018; "We welcome Elliott's intention to challenge Vivendi's direction and coordination over TI as we agree that Vivendi's conflict of interest implied governance issues and capped TI's share price performance." — Banca IMI, March 19, 2018"

""Valuation: Our price target is based on a DCF that includes a bolt-on sensitivity, with the increase due to a higher DCF with SLXP more than offsetting a slightly more conservative bolt-on analysis [of $50 dollars in present value per share]." — Goldman Sachs (Apr-12-2015); "While management appears focused on tuck-in deals in the near term, we would not be surprised to see VRX evaluate larger M&A over time. We calculate that continued deployment of cash flow and fully leveraging the company's balance sheet could drive 2017 EPS near $20." — JPMorgan (Apr-2-2015); "Valeant's diversified, global platform gives it the unique flexibility to consider a number of small and large transactions in branded pharma, generics, branded generics, OTC, and aesthetics all around the world." — Morgan Stanley (Feb-27-2014)"

"“Valuation: Our price target is based on a DCF that includes a bolt-on sensitivity, with the increase due to a higher DCF with SLXP more than offsetting a slightly more conservative bolt-on analysis [of $50 dollars in present value per share].” — Goldman Sachs (Apr-12-2015); “While management appears focused on tuck-in deals in the near term, we would not be surprised to see VRX evaluate larger M&A over time. We calculate that continued deployment of cash flow and fully leveraging the company’s balance sheet could drive 2017 EPS near $20.” — JPMorgan (Apr-2-2015); “Valeant’s diversified, global platform gives it the unique flexibility to consider a number of small and large transactions in branded pharma, generics, branded generics, OTC, and aesthetics all around the world.” — Morgan Stanley (Feb-27-2014)"

"At our 2017 annual Cowen Health Care Conference, most polled physicians (60%) indicated that ozanimod’s profile appears differentiated but not necessarily a ‘game changer’ in ulcerative colitis. — Cowen, February 2019; Ozanimod for MS was always a tough sell based on the entrenchment of Tecfidera and Gilenya. The high-profile delay at the FDA based on a poorly characterized metabolite won’t help … — BTIG, December 2018; …we expect most potential users of the drug will see this issue as a curious safety issue and another reason to ignore the drug. — BTIG, December 2018; Our point of contention for ozanimod has generally been the ‘lymphocytic rebound’ effect that has been an overhang for the entire S1P class within multiple sclerosis. — Raymond James, December 2018"

"“I’ll be very candid with you, if I was the product lead on the hook for these kinds of [80%] margins, I would be very, very scared...this is just not a believable scenario even with the scale of a hyperscaler...this is definitely a very sort of utopian best-case scenario.” — Former Engineer at CoreWeave; “The illustration appears to indicate the revenue from the residual assets in year 5 and beyond will represent 75% of the revenue in years 1-4 of the original contract. We will reserve our language to simply indicate that is highly unlikely.” — D.A. Davidson Research, June 9, 205; “Wishful thinking. That’s how old data centers worked before AI chips.” — Former Principal Architect at Nvidia; “Totally bullshit.” — Former Senior Product Manager at Nebius"

""Margins will expand in coming years, driven by mix shift towards premium alcohol and ingredients products..." — Apis Capital Dec 2015; "The company benefits from secular tailwinds in favor of whiskey – rye whiskey in particular" and "Existing Business Growth with Significant Market Share and Sustainable Barriers." — Apis Capital Dec 2015; "The real strategic win, however, appears on the balance sheet as "barreled distillate". These barrels are filled with distillate, booked at cost, and owned by MGP for the aging process. In a sense, this is MGP's "reserve" which they can access at any point after aging for 4 years. Aged barrels of distillate can sell for 3x the cost after ~4 years of aging." — Apis Capital Dec 2015"

""The complexity of Sony's business structure, which ranges from video game platforms to cutting-edge semiconductors and life insurance...appears to have discouraged entry by a broad range of investors. If investors were to invest in Sony in order to profit from earnings growth driven by the shift to digital distribution in the game and network services business, the firm's largest business, they would also need to accept risks arising from competitive conditions in the semiconductor business and restructuring in the mobile communications business since games account for less than 40% of total earnings." — Goldman Sachs, October 2018"

"LODE is promoting its new lithium recycling investment in LiNiCo, which is using the proceeds to increase its direct strategic investment in Green Li-ion Pte, Ltd. ("Green Li-ion") and purchase Green Li-ion's patented process equipment with exclusive rights for the U.S. market. Green Li-ion's website promotes having three investors, but upon closer inspection it appears the Company may be misrepresenting itself: HAX and SOSV appear to be related. The third investor, Entrepreneur First, doesn't even list or profile the Company among its 312 investments."

"The biggest controversy from last night's Disney F4Q 2022 earnings call was management guidance that FY 2023 segment EBIT would grow in the high single digits vs. consensus growth of +25% and our own estimate of +34%. Rarely have we ever been so incorrect in our forecasting of Disney profits. Given the company's confidence that Parks trends appear resilient, it appears that the culprit for the massive earnings downgrade is much higher than expected DTC losses and significant declines at Linear networks. — MoffettNathanson, November 9, 2022"

"In addition, HARMONY 1-bis displays all the other red flags as HARMONY 1: questionable foreign jurisdictions, with 40% of trial patients in Hungary and Argentina; pitolisant patients continued taking concomitant narcolepsy medications, creating a confounding factor; dose response data is again withheld, even though dosing was all over the place with 24% of patients on 10mg and 63% on 20mg; protocol violations and amendments, such as what appears to be another trial-size expansion, which the EMA review alludes to with no detail."

""VAX-31 APPEARS BEST-IN-CLASS & SHOULD LEAD THE EXPANDING ADULT + INFANT MARKET... VAX-31 met non-inferiority to PCV20 across the board, was superior on many difficult and highly-prevalent serotypes, and the data were more striking than for V116. The probability of even broader superiority in Phase III (starting in H1) is now much higher. The ~$8B market could grow to over $13B by 2027, and we believe VAX-31 should become the leader and generate significant strategic interest." — TD Cowen, September 2024"

"While these inconsistencies suggest that there may be discrepancies in the sell side's view of the base of the market, we are intrigued most by the fact that, regardless of how analysts identify and measure the market, they appear to significantly underestimate the pace of competitive market share gains: again, the sell side appears to assume that Penumbra will lose 2-3% market share per year, while Medtronic claims to have gained 15% in under a year and to be on pace to capture another 10% this year."

"It appears to us that 3 out of the 5 claimed entities in China in the Moxian group, including the main operating entity Moxian Shenzhen, its purported VIE Moyi Shenzhen and its 100% subsidiary Moxian Shanghai, do not have the basic organization, staff or the small amount of effort required to maintain even the most simple and routine annual reports and have a bad habit of moving and not updating its registered business and operational address or even a working phone line."

"TASK's financial performance is not as robust as it appears on the surface. The company promotes its 57% top-line growth, 82% and 95% Adjusted EBITDA and Net Income growth, respectively. However, we point out that the COVID-19 adjustments are not industry standard, and should be removed. Furthermore, by adjusting LTM cash flows for one-time equity payments, we find that cash flow growth has lagged headline figures. Free cash flow growth was negative."

"Verint's restructuring charge add-back appears particularly suspicious to us. We note that management has never announced a formal restructuring program; rather, it defines “restructuring costs” as “employee termination costs, facility exit costs, certain professional fees, asset impairment charges, and other costs directly associated with resource realignments incurred in reaction to changing strategies or business conditions.”"

"The Muddy Waters report appears to have given rise to many questions that have not yet been sufficiently discussed. The question must also be asked - it has already been raised by various shareholders, particularly by Mr. Klein - why the board of management is acting as if it is not proceeding against Muddy Waters out of generosity. Or is it true what Muddy Waters says: has our company no legal redress against this report?"

"Spruce Point finds it highly suspicious that AMR claimed all year in 2021 that it had 100% of its “All other” segment coal from NAPP priced. By late October that changed to 90%. By year end, it reported selling just 1.27m of the 1.50m tons. Yet, for the year, AMR reported realized pricing of $61.76 per ton vs. its last reported sales commitment of $58.33 per ton – a 6% premium for a business that appears under stress."

"Zebra changed its reporting of Contractual Obligations after 2020 and stopped disclosing that it did not have “take-or-pay arrangements.” However, recall on the previous slide that Zebra paid a $10 million to reduce its obligation to purchase inventory from a 2021 agreement. Therefore, it appears that Zebra did have an arrangement like a take-or-pay arrangement but chose not to disclose it."

""[Dauman] took a short-term financial gain beginning in 2011 by selling kids TV hits including SpongeBob to Netflix. That now appears to have backfired by encouraging young viewers to abandon Nickelodeon and other ad-supported channels and go online where they can watch shows whenever they want, without ads." — www.deadline.com/2015/08/viacom-philippe-dauman-heir-apparent-1201493629"

"Each post is devastating, the adverse effects one particularly so: “today marks week 6...we have seen zero improvements...his behavior has actually worsened significantly...he generally appears to feel ‘unwell’...like he’s been hit by a bus every morning...I’m just so frustrated and worried for him...”: “behaviors have been off the charts...the medication just isn’t going to work.”"

"Based on Spruce Point's forensic review of MDA, it appears the Company was not only struggling to cope with the levered acquisition of Space Systems Loral (SSL), but also using aggressive financial presentation and accounting methods to deflect its underlying problems of order declines as new high-throughput satellites and low-earth-orbit (LEO) constellations come online."

"We note that the package insert says that the drug "has no appreciable binding to other histamine receptors," but the only source appears to be a 2006 preclinical paper by Bioprojet scientist Xavier Ligneau, a member of Schwartz’s inner circle and whose work other scientists have stated is not reproducible in their labs, leading us to take his papers with a grain of salt."

"It appears that no matter the auditor in 2017 or 2022, there's a consistent warning that a critical audit matter relates to the carrying value of the assets. The current auditor is evaluating the historical EBITDA projections vs. actual. Based on our review, management was overly optimistic about access to milk for production, and EBITDA margins have materially declined."

"Talk about a fall from grace. Of all the US airlines, Southwest has evolved the least since 9/11, relative to an industry that has undergone a massive profit transformation ... We believe substantive changes to its business model are required if margins are ever going to reclaim the high ground, but management (thus far) appears uninterested. — J.P. Morgan, December 2023"

"Talk about a fall from grace. Of all the US airlines, Southwest has evolved the least since 9/11, relative to an industry that has undergone a massive profit transformation ... We believe substantive changes to its business model are required if margins are ever going to reclaim the high ground, but management (thus far) appears uninterested. — J.P. Morgan, December 2023"

"Talk about a fall from grace. Of all the US airlines, Southwest has evolved the least since 9/11, relative to an industry that has undergone a massive profit transformation ... We believe substantive changes to its business model are required if margins are ever going to reclaim the high ground, but management (thus far) appears uninterested. — J.P. Morgan, December 2023"

"Talk about a fall from grace. Of all the US airlines, Southwest has evolved the least since 9/11, relative to an industry that has undergone a massive profit transformation ... We believe substantive changes to its business model are required if margins are ever going to reclaim the high ground, but management (thus far) appears uninterested. — J.P. Morgan, December 2023"

"UEC's Hobson Processing Facility in Texas is a cornerstone of its marketing to investors and appears on the last slide of its investor presentation. In February 2023, UEC showed an image with a group of people touring the facility. However, according to Google Maps archives the facility sign was blank at the time and recent corporate filings indicate delinquencies."

"Since 2018, approximately 50% of Monster's $3.7 billion in total sales growth has come from international markets, with the largest growth contributor being EMEA. However, we do not expect international sales momentum to continue as only two countries have been added in the past two years, competition has vastly expanded, and regulation appears likely to increase."

"“Herbalife’s entire business model appears to incentivize primarily the payment of compensation that is ‘facially unrelated to the sale of product to the ultimate users’ because it is paid based on the suggested retail price of the amount ordered [from Herbalife], rather than based on actual sales to consumers.” — Federal Court in California (Herbalife v. Ford)"

"“Herbalife’s entire business model appears to incentivize primarily the payment of compensation that is ‘facially unrelated to the sale of product to the ultimate users’ because it is paid based on the suggested retail price of the amount ordered [from Herbalife], rather than based on actual sales to consumers.” — Federal Court in California, Herbalife v. Ford"

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"ROAD’s single biggest customer is the Florida Department of Transportation (DOT), which is ~14% of sales for highway improvement projects. We obtained ROAD’s contracts through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and are concerned by an apparent -22% decline in contract awards in 2024, none of which appears to be captured in the market consensus."

"If the chart reflected the value in the table, which appears to be the correct one given multiple references in the paper, it would show a quick and sharp reversal of the pitolisant trend after week 3 (visit 5), undermining the results and necessitating data longer than 8 weeks, which the trials clearly try to avoid with the absurdly short duration."

"“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"

"With the largest component of Hill-Rom’s PP&E facing a maximum ten-year useful life - the same period over which management appears to have delayed capital spending - we believe that the Company may be forced to ramp up capital spending substantially in the coming years simply to support maintenance capex, to say nothing of growth capex."

"With the largest component of Hill-Rom’s PP&E facing a maximum ten-year useful life – the same period over which management appears to have delayed capital spending – we believe that the Company may be forced to ramp up capital spending substantially in the coming years simply to support maintenance capex, to say nothing of growth capex."

"Given the size of legal spend, it appears that Tessera pays full cash legal fees at extremely high hourly rates for all of its litigation instead of opting for performance driven structures, such as the use of partial contingency fees that reduce cash outlays, share risk and incentivize law firm performance as opposed to billable hours."

"Over the last five years, despite having a significantly profitable core Digital Telephony business, DSP appears to have managed itself to a slight operating loss (and slight EBITDA gain) almost every year, regardless of the Company's revenue, by making substantial investments in R&D and SG&A that have shown little if any progress."

"Below is what Aerojet’s balance sheet would look like without the effect of the recent adoption. What’s clear is that its working capital trends are progressively deteriorating. Thus, in addition to the income statement benefit from the accounting change, Aerojet also conveniently appears to be masking balance sheet deterioration."

"It appears that SMCI's auditors are applying more, not less, scrutiny to SMCI's inventory accounting assumptions. We note that the disclosure around auditor testing of its procedures has increased materially. Of particular concern, we observe that the auditor is now turning to data specialists to "recalculate historical rates.""

"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."