Callouts & quotes from 26,677+ activist slides

"D. Bruce Horton served early on UEC's audit committee and served as CFO (2006-2007). He had a controversial past as Co-Founder, Director and CFO of Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp. whereby the Company was sued, and allegations were made that Mr. Horton misled the market."

"We believe that SGHC's multiple is likely to re-rate lower as its revenue and earnings power declines from rising regulatory risks and taxation costs, disruption from prediction markets and concerns about its financial reporting accuracy related to Raging River Trading."

"Lone Star reports just 625 employees (and is currently advertising only seven open positions between Lone Star Paving and Materials). Yet, its backlog is projected to grow 15% and equates to $1.1m of backlog per current employee which is materially above reported peers."

"Now, betting on an electric future is a popular thing to do. While we don’t know the winners or the losers, the market loves all these stocks, which trade at multiples that seem ambitious to people like me, who try to tie a value to boring things like future cash flows."

"Related-party “customers” appear to be staffed with what we believe to be loyal, longtime Ginkgo plants in critical positions, who we think rotate from entity to entity to ensure that the entities play ball by round-tripping revenue back to Ginkgo via foundry R&D spend."

"Conclusion: This is the first randomized double-blind study on SCS. HFSCS was equivalent to sham for the primary outcome (improvement of PGIC) as well as for both the secondary outcomes (VAS and EQ-5D index) [...] It appears that the effect of HFSCS and sham is equal..."

"If Medtronic's claims regarding its current share and share trajectory are at all credible – and we have no reason to believe that they are not – then sell-side market share estimates for Penumbra, and sales growth estimates by extension, are off by a tremendous margin."

"Let’s detour into the early days of China frauds – government-mandated Data vs investor-facing data. Different data sets likely prepared and submitted by different people, with one set of people focused on legal compliance and the other focused on defrauding investors."

"We believe it is Clear that the Current Board Has Failed in its Oversight of the Company and that Shareholders Deserve and Require Board Representatives Who Are Not Only Incredibly Well-Qualified and Experienced, But Who Are Committed to Holding Management Accountable."

"As Chair of the Compensation committee for each of the last 3 years, Glass Lewis has recommended that shareholders vote AGAINST Ms. Evans' continued service on the Board of Office Depot and has questioned whether she should even serve on any other public company board."

"Our review of the emerging markets which American Tower has entered (India, Ghana, Uganda, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Columbia, Chile, Peru) has revealed a multitude of operational risks with strong potential to negatively impact the Company’s long-term performance."

"Independence concerns over four out of the six outside directors (including direct links to OLC) raise serious doubts about their collective ability to fairly and objectively perform their duties – including fundamental checks and balances on management decision-making"

"From the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2007 to the day prior to our announcement of our proposed slate, Target stock declined by 51%. Over the same period, the stock of Wal-Mart, Target’s principal competitor, appreciated 11%, a ~62 percentage point outperformance"

"In a base-case scenario in which member owner sharebacks gradually rerate close to the average market rate, and in which PINC’s FY22 EV/EBITDA multiple contracts by ~35% as the economics of the business are reset, Spruce Point sees close to 70% downside in PINC shares."

"We believe Skechers' revenue growth over the past five years has largely been the product of two very simple and transitory catalysts. Approximately 60% of total revenue growth has come from the international wholesale business, and about half of that from China alone."

"Legions of lawyers hired by BlackRock's BoD, paid with shareholders' money, will not be able to convince anyone that, from a substantive perspective, Director Ms. Wagner does not have a material relationship with BlackRock's senior executives, hence is not independent."

"Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) shareholders, it's time to vote for a brighter future and better corporate governance. Vote the GOLD card FOR Elliott's board nominees Brian Coffman, Sigmund Cornelius, Michael Heim and Stacy Nieuwoudt, and FOR corporate governance enhancements."

"We believe our Proposal can potentially increase McDonald's share price to $50 per share. In addition, we believe McDonald's strong management team, running a world-leading brand, can create significant additional value based only on incremental operating improvements."

"Novartis referred to Twist as “definitely” a commodity vendor, dismissing their NGS offering - now the majority of Twist’s revenue and their key growth driver - as old news: “it’s all standard manufacturing technology”; “these things were already discovered years ago.”"

"We are writing to you on behalf of funds managed by Elliott Investment Management L.P. (together with such funds, "Elliott" or "we"). We have an investment of more than $2.5 billion in Phillips 66 (the "Company" or "Phillips"), making us one of your top five investors."

"Members are asked to advise whether the proposal with effect from 15 October to issue and redeem Certificates of Indebtedness only against US dollars at a fixed rate sould be implemented, and whether such a step should be accompanied by the zero-rating of interest tax."

"Many growth opportunities are available in the space, however, Kao’s best prospects for revenue and profit growth lie in the overseas opportunity set for its derma-skincare, select mass & prestige cosmetic brands; and its largest mass market skin & personal-care names."

"Assuming 75% of G&A is allocated to the Real Estate and Franchise business, an allocation that McDonald's management indicates is conservative, we indicate below the EBITDA for McOpCo and the Real Estate and Franchise businesses, as depicted in the reported financials."

"Spruce Point is amazed that not a single analyst is willing to offer a “Sell” opinion on HIMS. We do not believe the analysts have conducted a critical evaluation of the Company’s business prospects with the same analytical rigor and skepticism applied by Spruce Point."

"Our WFG recruiters made several probes into our personal lives during our recruiting calls. We believe these were high-pressure tactics used to play on our emotions. The recruiter also frequently referred to us as their friend, likely to deepen the personal connection."

"This suggests that Aegon's senior leadership is not only aware of Guillermo's ongoing involvement with the organization, despite his past conduct, but also allows him to hold a role of such significance that he is permitted to present openly at WFG's annual convention."

"Considering that nearly three-quarters of Aegon's new life sales are driven by IULs, we would expect Aegon to be overrepresented among IUL distributors and indeed through Q2'24 YTD, Transamerica is a top 3 IUL writer in terms of premiums and number of policies written."

"As shown in an excerpt from Intuit’s FY 2024 10-K above, Intuit includes interest revenue in “Service and Other Revenue”, thus prohibiting investors from understanding the scale and trends related to this markedly different revenue stream compared to its core business."

"Specifically the debt would have to be "in the ordinary course of business consistent with past practices". However, Forescout has never had to draw on its credit facility before as a public company, so the practice does not appear to be consistent with past practices."

"Might AMT management, which certainly has a record of being less than transparent about its overseas business, be desperate to augment its tower base by 25% in order to obscure organic growth going forward, and to maintain the optics of 20% dividend growth at any cost?"

"Legions of lawyers hired by BlackRock's BoD, paid with shareholders' money, will not be able to convince anyone that, from a substantive perspective, Director Ms. Wagner does not have a material relationship with BlackRock's senior executives, hence is not independent."

"Ex-employees indicated the instrument was instable and even super-users internally couldn’t keep up, and that both the software and hardware behave unpredictably with “no transparency into why things go wrong; instrument behaves in way that are “completely unexpected.”"

"Warning: AOL / Time Warner was a bull market merger, over-promoted by analysts, and mired in fraud. Legal documents show that Analyst Martin played a role in promoting the story, and was willing to write glowing commentary on the company so not as to offend management."

"We adjust Fairfax's Book Value down by $171 million due to the Grivalia Properties ("GP") transactions with Eurobank that, in a manner reminiscent of the pre-GFC trading among Icelandic banks, inflated profits, asset values, and book value at both Eurobank and Fairfax."

"In addition to its dominant position in Korea and a strong footprint in the three largest auto markets – US, Western Europe and China – Hyundai Motor Group is well-positioned to capture further growth opportunities in top three growth markets – India, Russia and Brazil"

"KOL's and former executives blasted the study for using the same tricks and gimmicks as the SENZA trial: an open-label design (i.e., no blinding), a loosy-goosy comparator arm guaranteed to produce a "successful" trial, cherry-picked patients, and patient manipulation."

"I could tell you seven surgeons who would be, should be excluded from surgery for life because they're very, very brutal - I mean, they have terrible outcomes. They kill more patients than they save, and they still go on to jump around the country at various hospitals."

"We believe that a key part of TransMedics modus operandi is preventing its procurement surgeons from communicating with recipient surgeons and centers, in order to conceal or overrule their concerns about defective or unusable organs when they arrive at the donor site."

"The CEO of a major OPO stated “their CEO is pretty arrogant...he’s an arrogant prick....I mean, look at what they did...they bought $12-13 million aircraft...it’s just price gouging...it’s unbelievable...it’s not what transplant is meant to be...people don’t like him.”"

"Piperidines and piperazines are great structures, and medicinal chemistry would be a lot poorer without them, but they can set off hERG activity, which can (in some cases) lead to heart rhythm problems, which can (in pretty much all cases) lead to your drug wiping out."

"We unearthed a Schwartz paper from 2001 that includes a table with H3 receptor candidates, including a molecule then named FUB 649 – which we noticed is identical to pitolisant – which of course also means it’s too old to have any intellectual property protection left."

"The feedback was unequivocal that it’s a flop: “the excitement for this is on the wane”; “we were fairly eager and excited...and then quite disappointed”; “I don’t anybody who’s really bullish on it” and that at best they “kind of prescribe a little bit here or there.”"

"Specifically, we have found definitive evidence of INS lending money to startups controlled by INS employees in India, then slowly funneling that initial investment back to INS through a network of related Indian and Asian companies, allowing INS to book it as revenue."

"In other words, similar to what happened in Japan, which Culper Research’s report presented, Archer simply failed to provide their partners with a functioning aircraft, or should we say just an aircraft at all, which led to them cancelling their plans with the company."

"We expose via a forensic in-depth analysis of Goldrone’s public filings, history, locations of operations, product portfolio, customer relations, intellectual property and shareholder complaints that this counterparty seems completely unable to satisfy such a contract."

"Further, appointing Bob Iger as Executive Chairman for 2 years as an outgoing CEO in our view was a very risky corporate governance decision as it set up his successor to fail with the prior CEO constantly watching over their shoulders - this is exactly what transpired"

"Spruce Point Conducted Proprietary Analysis To Investigate Vets First Choice’s (“VFC”) Recent Performance And Believes There Is A Window Of Opportunity To Purchase Shares Of HSIC Today At A Steep Discount To Where Wall Street Analysts Will Eventually Value The Company"

"From the provision stated above, we can make the following conclusion: being run by the government is not the precondition to enjoy the benefit of 'business tax exemption policy', the precondition to enjoy the policy is 'being engaged in academic (diploma) education'."

"Avery is more expensive and levered than it appears. We believe Avery inflates Adjusted EBITDA and EPS with dubious restructuring add-backs. In addition, it obscures reporting of operating leases, which are also debt, and ignores pension and environmental liabilities."

"Procept represents that Aquablation benefits from strong "word-of-mouth", but we find that the relative search activity for Aquablation approximates that of HoLEP, arguably the most specialized resective procedure and one typically used for the largest prostate sizes."

"The Starboard slate includes individuals with deep expertise in Tessera’s key markets, a broad understanding of the intellectual property licensing and technology components businesses, and the independence necessary to hold management accountable for its performance."

"Versus the current outstanding offshore debt of $1.893 Billion, the “real” best case net asset value is around $92 million. Divided by the current number of shares outstanding – 245 million - that leaves a share value of approximately C$0.38 at current exchange rates."

"With Penumbra more penetrated than the sell side believes in the peripheral thrombectomy market – a market which is already more crowded and competitive than the neuro market – we believe the Company's runway for growth is far more limited than is generally perceived."

"Even under management's wellness center ramp-up assumptions – which we consider overly-ambitious – PetIQ's new wellness centers would fail to generate positive cash flow until FY22, and would not generate a positive return on total investment until the following year."

"IPX’s Contact Us and Product Inquires page has not been updated for a while, and perhaps no potential customers have pointed out the glaring issue that it still references commissioning of a larger facility “targeted for early 2024”; 2026 is less than two months away."

"Dr. Fang (Blacksand founder and technology inventor), Raymond Nimrod (IperionX’s technology and patent portfolio advisor) and Lamont Leatherman (former Chief Geologist) either completely sold or materially reduced their stock holdings between August 31, 2024 and 2025."

"Michael manages over 20 million square feet of commercial real estate and has acquired more than $12 billion of real estate in 45 states, including more than 85,000 apartment units, 50 million square feet of office, retail and industrial space, and 10,000 hotel rooms."

"NetQin feels very sorry about the stockholders' loss due to the great decline of stock price. However, the loss was caused by the defamatory comments made by Muddy Waters; therefore, NetQin has taken legal action in Beijing to sue Muddy Waters and the report's writer."

"The consequence follows. There was an error of law (as in Milne-Skillman) vitiating any planning judgment. In those circumstances, nothing turns on Mr Harwood KC's further point, that the wording of the revised Condition 12 being insufficient to permit divergence from"

"We believe this repeated behavior is the outcome of broader and more systemic problems, including a poor corporate culture that appears to reward loyalty to the founder over performance, a Board that has failed to provide true accountability for delivering on results."