Callouts & quotes from 26,677+ activist slides

"Petitioner is aware of three reports in recent weeks of young patients hospitalized for potential heart failure shortly after starting VYKAT XR. In the last few days, new information has emerged which suggests the total number of hospitalizations may be seven patients or higher."

"Using the Company’s 2008 statement that half of “Distributor Facing” expenses are vacation packages, one-time cash bonuses, Herbalife pins and watches, and other similar promotions that can only be gained via recruiting, $291mm of Herbalife’s SG&A in 2011 were Recruiting Rewards"

"The Company’s method uses an in-group median rather than average. This sets up a scenario where the refining impact is always coming from average of CVR, Delek, HF Sinclair or PBF. This means that Phillips 66 is only comparing its performance to inappropriate small cap refiners."

"Spruce Point is concerned that MSCI is operating without a Global Controller in place that it says has, "direct responsibility for the largest portion of the finance organization and firmwide accounting, financial reporting, financial and treasury operations" among other things."

"Trian believes the attributes, skills and qualifications that Mr. Peltz possesses through his experience as a hands-on executive and active board member on numerous public company boards will provide DuPont and its Board with valuable industry knowledge and management experience"

"If our plan is implemented by the company and just the core business is fixed (with no additional improvement in the value of the Alibaba and YJ stakes), we believe that Yahoo's stock would trade about $60/share or more than $30/share higher than the plan advocated by Starboard."

"If our plan is implemented by the company and just the core business is fixed (with no additional improvement in the value of the Alibaba and YJ stakes), we believe that Yahoo's stock would trade about $60/share or more than $30/share higher than the plan advocated by Starboard."

"If our plan is implemented by the company and just the core business is fixed (with no additional improvement in the value of the Alibaba and YJ stakes), we believe that Yahoo's stock would trade about $60/share or more than $30/share higher than the plan advocated by Starboard."

"Both are good businesses that can make for good investments. But combining them under one conglomerate structure delivers the worst of both worlds - inefficient capital allocation, operations that suffer because of unfocused management teams, and no natural home among investors."

"Based on Australian filings, PBH Australia’s revenue growth is slowing. This would contradict management’s prior comments regarding the growth opportunity in the region, lead by well-positioned brands and acquisitions. We believe PBH may be stretching to deliver on its promises."

"Part of the growth story is that CLEAR can expand its network effect proposition beyond the airport into other venues such as sporting events. However, we don't believe this upside case has legs and the Company even retracted claims about its second local network effect in 2024."

"And the problem in this model is those agents that are good, that 10% they are referring to in every market, they can't handle more leads because they don't have enough good agents underneath them on their teams to support the leads that are coming in to be able to help convert."

"I often leave, and I’m like, ‘There’s no way they’re going to be able to use that organ’...I feel like they just keep going and going, keep trying and trying and trying...it’s going to be in an operating room with a recipient hours and hours later when the heart function is off."

"ADOMANI makes sure to milk this speculation as demonstrated by its PR on August 17, 2017 titled: ADOMANI Sees $2.9 Billion in Settlement Funds, from Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust, As Unprecedented Product Funding Opportunity in its Goal to “Help Yellow Go Green!”(TM)"

"For private entities, the central legal question would generally be whether they knew or should have known that their services were being used in connection with such conduct and whether they nonetheless provided material assistance or failed to take reasonable preventive steps."

"Lasertec’s purported lack of finished goods inventory and reporting methodology is highly abnormal and lacks credibility versus the five largest semicap equipment players, for whom finished goods has averaged 30% as a percent of total over the last 5 years versus 0% for Lasertec"

"Given the apparent willingness of the current Board members to take extraordinary action to entrench themselves, as exemplified by the Reincorporation Proposal, we have little choice at this time but to immediately commence the process to call a special meeting of shareholders."

"The Seller hereby sells to the Purchaser and the Purchaser hereby purchases from the Seller 490 Quota in the Company with a total nominal value of ALL 490 representing 49% of the entire registered capital of the Company in consideration for the Purchase Price ("Target Quotas")."

"Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) investors are voting with their feet. The company's stock outperformed peers by 11% with Elliott's release of its #Streamline66 plan, then sank when Phillips 66 management publicly doubled down on its conglomerate structure and midstream growth strategy."

"We're [Anadarko] very committed to capital discipline and...as we constrain capital, we see better returns on our projects, we quit dipping down to the lower tier, we keep that continual high grading effort going on and on... We're going to be very disciplined as we go forward."

"Elanco is an animal healthcare company with promising products in a secularly growing industry. This campaign is about bringing execution and accountability to an insular Board that has not properly overseen management and destroyed billions in shareholder value in the process."

"Spruce Point believes that Evoqua made potentially misleading statements by dismissing sales concerns about Mar Cor, while continuing to increase the earnout asset value, an implicit reflection that it expected to receive the earnout back from its failure to meet sales targets."

"Spruce Point observes that AMR has used a relatively small firm in Virginia as its “Qualified Expert”. The consent form is increasingly being signed by a principal lower down the chain of command. Furthermore, there are subtle language changes being made that raise our concern."

"Skechers has faced several episodes of excess inventory, most recently in Q3 2015 and Q2 2018. While the drivers in each case were different, subsequent lawsuits would suggest that shareholders were very surprised based on their interpretation of management's previous comments."

"The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent body that works closely with the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the ACC/AHA/ACCP/HRS Guideline, currently does not support proactive screening of asymptomatic patients for atrial fibrillation."

"Asserting the contrary, from 2015 until now, demonstrates two things only: 1. BlackRock's Board of Directors lacks adequate independent oversight 2. Ms. Wagner herself has confirmed that she is not independent by relying on an assessment that she must know is plainly unfounded."

"We find evidence that Califia Farms is aggressively price promoting its new Oat Milk as incentives to gain share. We believe it's only a matter of time before Oatly is faced with the reality it too will need to lower prices in order to stimulate growth and protect market share."

"While there are differences between Smiths' businesses and these companies, the fact that Smiths trades at a meaningful discount to its pure play peers in each of its divisions is a powerful attestation that the entire Company trades at a sizable discount to its SOTP valuation."

"In all three, we heard substantially the same rhetoric from the companies and their advisors prior to the proxy contest. However, at Heinz and DuPont, management’s views of Trian and Nelson Peltz changed dramatically after we began to work with them to enhance shareholder value"

"We strongly suspect that the vast majority of the $127.9 million cash and investments NQ reported having as of December 31, 2012 is not actually in the Company's accounts; rather, that some to all of NQ's IPO proceeds have been diverted in order to further the accounting fraud."

"According to analyst Lake Street, 83% of Ballard’s value is “potential” new business. Ballard has been public since 1995 with countless failures to deliver profits. Investors should no longer be paying for potential, but rather tangible earnings and a sustainable business model"

"Both Celsius and Keurig Dr. Pepper are accelerating their push into the energy drink category with the recent acquisitions of GHOST and Alani Nu. Both brands are fast-growing and were acquired at ~3x sales. Monster is valued at over 7x sales and its growth is low single digits."

"If the objective of the Meetrics acquisition was to scale in Europe and deepen relationships, we believe that would be hard to accomplish given numerous sales executives departing DV post-acquisition. We could identify only one sales executive out of five that is still with DV."

"While constant-currency sales growth in certain markets (Mexico, EMEA and China) was offset by declines in others (South & Central America, North America, and Asia Pacific), Herbalife’s segment-level reporting obfuscates continued “pop-and-drop” dynamics in individual countries"

"Given Vidazoo’s spectacular outperformance in 2022, why did the earn-out liability not materially increase towards the maximum amount? Instead, it moderately declined from $48.9m to $32.6m. This may suggest that PERI sandbagged expectations when providing guidance to investors."

"Asserting the contrary, from 2015 until now, demonstrates two things only: 1. BlackRock's Board of Directors lacks adequate independent oversight 2. Ms. Wagner herself has confirmed that she is not independent by relying on an assessment that she must know is plainly unfounded."

"While unfortunate, this disappointing trajectory has created a historic opportunity: With the right mindset and an appropriately ambitious turnaround plan, PepsiCo today represents a rare chance to revitalize a leading global enterprise and unlock significant shareholder value."

"Larger launch providers are responding to smallsat demand by offering increasingly frequent rideshare missions, where many satellites (the record is 134 held by SpaceX) from multiple operators are launched on a single rocket at a fraction of the price quoted by small launchers."

"Engine questions how Ms. Moorehead (current Chair) and Mr. Derksen (former Chair) could approve such a statement when they know full well that since calling the Special Meeting, Engine and the Company have been seemingly close to reaching a resolution on more than one occasion."

"APi is a credible national competitor to Cintas that offers a full suite of safety solutions including engineering, design, installation, inspection, repair and monitoring. We believe Cintas offers a narrower range of services, and does not do the more lucrative repair business"

"Cintas has reported making “minor changes” to its Audit Committee Charter in early 2019, yet has not updated the document on its website. However, all other committee charter documents have been updated. Shareholders should not be kept in the dark as to what these changes were."

"Eurofins, whose BUs are often audited by firms unaffiliated with its consolidated financial auditor Deloitte, routinely has its subsidiaries report Cash & Equivalents balances in inconsistent manners, and often in ways that likely disguise that there is very little actual cash."

"Doctors more amenable to using stimulators for PDN – including Nevro loyalists - were vocal in stating that Abbott's DRG is the best waveform for PDN versus high frequency: “without question”; “it’s not even a question”; “100 times better than any other neuromodulation system.”"

"The item "Advances" includes advances received from customers relating to supplies of goods and services not yet carried out; this item includes advances with or without the function of a deposit, for transactions involving the sale of tangible, intangible and financial assets."

"Mr. Warner's 30+ years of experience building and leading organizations in digital media and marketing and his deep expertise in general management, business development, strategy and planning, will enable him, in Starboard's view, to provide effective oversight of the Company."

"Comically, even the clinical trials show Wakix is inferior to modafinil, which leaves only one conceivable argument: that it is easier to prescribe because it’s not a controlled substance, the flimsy thread by which its FDA approval, commercial pitch, and stock narrative hangs."

"When we visited the facility on weekdays during the months of June, July and August 2025, we barely observed any activity besides a couple of people walking outside the facility and a few cars parked, giving the impression of a facility standing idle, awaiting a genuine purpose"

"We are short UFP Technologies (UFPT), which specializes in producing single-use drapes, because our research indicates that their largest customer, Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), —who controls 57% of surgical robot systems—is gutting UFPT by insourcing and buying from a competitor."

"Given that there are only two or three EUV source suppliers to choose from, it is obvious that Lasertec would have evaluated Isteq over five years ago prior to rejecting it for Ushio – and are now desperately trying to cover up the Ushio failure and trying Isteq as a Hail Mary."

"We are unimpressed with Ströer’s response to our initial report. There seems to be a cottage industry that has grown up around responding to criticism from short activists. Accordingly, Ströer leaves major issues unaddressed, which we presume is because it has no good answers."

"It appears that Smart2Pay’s approximately 50 employees were to join Nuvei. This further calls into question how could its margins increase so dramatically in the absence of significant cost reductions. LinkedIn employment trends also show no indication of employment attrition."

"In the value chain, Genius in the middleman between leagues and sportsbook. Genius purchases exclusive rights from leagues and often provides software at no cost. Genius’ sportsbook customers use the data feed provided by Genius for their end market betting and media products."

"AMT is taking a double benefit. First, it wishes to increase its tenancy ratio, which leads to organic growth. However, a number of the towers, particularly in the emerging markets, were only built to handle one tenant and need redevelopment CapEx to handle additional tenants."

"In contrast to the QS CEO’s claims that VW has “seen the data” and “they’ve seen it works,” both VW employees indicated that VW has seen little: “the main issues our engineers and experts are raising are trust in the data, a lack of transparency”; “there are so many questions”"

"As we read IonQ’s presentations, we noticed that the claims are stunning and in large font, yet the slides look like the SPAC version of an illustrated children’s book – stuffed with make-believe hockey sticks on seemingly every other page and futuristic conceptual renderings."

"To further emphasize its size advantage versus competitors, IonQ adds other pictures for the avoidance of doubt. Its presentation indicates that its ion trap and vacuum chamber package is only 2 inches wide, versus IBM and Google’s hardware at 6 feet and 20 feet, respectively."

"IonQ heavily promotes their gold-colored “QPU chip” – the so-called “quantum processing unit” – as their secret sauce and the heart of their intellectual property, portraying it as a special version of CPU’s in regular computers: “Empowered by Unique Technological Advantages.”"

"However, despite having arguably the best positioned portfolio in the consumer packaged goods industry, Nestlé shares have significantly underperformed most of their US and European consumer staples peers on a three year, five year, and ten year total shareholder return basis."

"This stark disconnect between the Company's branding and its financial reality raises significant questions about the substance of its AI narrative and whether the rebrand reflects true technological leadership or simply an effort to capitalize on prevailing market enthusiasm."

"Unbeknownst to Plaintiff and Class members, their actions, interactions, data transmissions and communications while accessing and navigating the Naviance platform were surreptitiously intercepted, monitored, captured and recorded by Defendant Heap and the Heap Doe Defendants."