Callouts & quotes from 26,677+ activist slides

"If the (2) Preliminary Alternative Plan was “prepared to illustrate to the Forescout board the degree of variability” in Forescout’s sales pipeline and future expenses, why was it not provided to prospective buyers alongside the more optimistic (1) Target Plan?"

"I continually was asking during my entire tenure there, can you give me a list of successful delivery examples? - and indicated an inability to find "even one or two examples of customers" who are "actually super happy with the strains that Ginkgo is producing."

"WE URGE INVESTORS TO READ ANY PROXY STATEMENT (INCLUDING ANY SUPPLEMENTS THERETO) AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS THAT THE COMPANY MAY FILE WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION."

"The letter’s tone suggests alarm, noting ~108,000 MDR’s (medical device reports) received by the FDA including ~78k injuries, 29k malfunctions, and 500 deaths – and concludes by urging providers and patients “to report any adverse events...with SCS” to the FDA."

"McDonald’s company-operated restaurants (“McOpCo”) appeared to contribute ~50% of total EBITDA. However, once adjusted for market rent and franchise fees, McOpCo actually constituted ~20% of total EBITDA, with Brand McDonald’s contributing ~80% of total EBITDA."

"Disney’s Board decided to spend an estimated $40 million of shareholder money engaging in a proxy contest, while 11 out of 12 Directors have not even met Nelson Peltz or Jay Rasulo in-person during Trian’s engagement with the Company in the past year and a half"

"Moreover, chewing turns Soleno’s only argument about Vykat’s purported PK superiority on its head, since it releases the entire dose at once, and thus the CEO shoots himself with his own arrow by claiming that “high levels...put the person at significant risk.”"

"We are valuing legacy HSIC at a one turn discount to its current long-term EV/ EBITDA multiple of ~13.0X. We think a slight discount to its current valuation is warranted since the legacy HSIC will no longer be exposed to the higher growth animal health sector"

"The only possible reason why EDU’s Beijing subsidiary would not be paying Enterprise Income Tax is because it is not turning a profit. PRC tax law makes it clear that no EIT exemption is available to the BJ Operation because its revenue is deemed “for-profit”."

"The chart below shows the performance since 2010 of four of the EM currencies to which AMT has directional exposure, the Brazilian Real, Indian Rupee, Ghana Cedis, and the South African Rand – a hedge fund using leverage for this trade would have been unhappy."

"If Penumbra's market share has until now been protected by only the FDA's relatively weak 510(k) approval process, investors should not be confident that it can maintain its share or price levels now that competitors have finally entered the market "on-label.""

"Insiders continue to be net sellers of Mercury shares despite having been given the chance to prove Spruce Point wrong: rather than demonstrate confidence in the business by committing more personal capital at depressed prices, they have continued to sell out."

"On July 26, 2016, 810,811 warrants were issued with an exercise price of $46.911 with each warrant having a claim on 1.15 common shares. Up until recently, none of the warrants had been exercised. Now in Q1 2022, we see that a block of warrants were exercised."

"Oatly claims its processes and know-how are proprietary and include trade secrets, yet it openly let graduate students from the Lund University into its warehouse to study its processes and produce an academic paper with detail observations about its business."

"Vivendi opportunistically used the 19 member cap in TIM's by-laws to allow its executives onto the Board, although a majority of other investors voted against this as well as objecting to using TIM's funds to pay for compensation for these additional directors"

"Ballard's press releases and local government officials would have you believe Foshan Feichi have produced 114 FCV buses. Based on our research, we believe they have likely produced less than 50 buses to date, and only 11 of those are licensed and on the road."

"In some cases, management isn't shy about the fact that its M&A isn't done for purely “strategic” reasons as much as it’s done simply to gobble up new customers. Again, management was accused of doing just this in 1999-2002 to cover up declining organic sales."

"Note that, as shown in Amdocs’ Cypriot filings, the Company’s aggregate European operations show very limited fixed assets, but significant intangible assets, which are composed almost entirely (~100%) of software ($112M, including software under development)."

"For factoring of AT&T receivables to have been responsible for the difference between the 5-day decline in AT&T DSOs and the 7-day increase in firm-wide DSOs - a difference of 12 DSOs - we estimate that Amdocs would have had to factor $36M of AT&T receivables."

"Monster's market share appears to be the most pressured among its closest peers, and this is before Celsius acquired Alani Nu in February 2025 and Anheuser-Busch (BUD) announced in January 2025 that it would partner with 1st Phorm to launch a new energy drink."

"Trian believes the mindset and culture at State Street has prioritized growth (in AUCA, AUM and revenue) over profitability. The “land grab” mentality must transition to a focus on EPS growth, return on invested capital and maximizing total shareholder returns"

"Mitek's true rationale for adopting this poison pill - old-fashioned entrenchment - is demonstrated by the Company's use of an amorphous and far-reaching definition of beneficial ownership that extends well beyond the requirements of the Internal Revenue Code."

"Based on recent presentation figures, Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) has gone down and PERI is no longer disclosing Cost Per Incremental Store Visit. Notice carefully that PERI also removed client logos and the text, “Proven Attribution For Top Retailers.”"

"2.5% of equity capital would imply Claims Paying Resources of $286bn, over 10 times the cumulative losses in the GSEs' single-family guarantee business during the financial crisis, based on our estimates of actual credit losses excluding subprime and Alt-A MBS"

"Contrary to the narrative from management who, described the collapse as “just a little tiny portion of the pit ramp” and stated “the sidewall failure [as] very similar to the one [it] had last year”18, this collapse impacts roughly a quarter of the pit’s rim."

"We believe that, even on reasonable base-case assumptions for growth in new products and the legacy business, respectively, Hill-Rom should miss consensus core revenue estimates by 2% – a top-line miss the likes of which the Company has not seen since Q2 FY16."

"Yahoo said on December 9th that Gemini is now at a $500 million revenue run rate but has never given any financial details to demonstrate this product's success and hasn't said how much of the $500 million run rate comes from cannibalizing other Yahoo revenues"

"Technology is nothing special; just an expensive mash-up of cheap, existing lab tools like flow cytometers and fluidics; dismissed it as a glorified cytometer, which sell for $50-$500K; called out lack of data showing any real-world impact from the instrument."

"These three apparent undisclosed related parties suggest that there is much still unknown about the web of enmeshed transactions at NMC, as well as the extent to which its key shareholders hold economic interests beyond what the company is willing to disclose."

"Rather than recommending a premium sale to Private Equity, allowing all shareholders to benefit, Schoen and the Board (7 of whom are currently members of the 8 independent directors today), recommended a defensive tactic in the form of a $10 per share dividend"

"The cost basis for “Office Equipment” as of June 30, 2009 decreased from S$36.4 million in the FY2009 AR to S$16.8 million in the FY2010 AR. So what happened to the S$19.6 million (S$19,629,000 to be precise)? It turned into biological assets (p. 88, 2010 AR)."

"Collectively, the Company's years of missed execution and unfulfilled promises have translated into poor stock price performance, leaving long-term shareholders significantly worse off than if they had simply invested in the chemical or broader market indices."

"We have concerns with Bunge's headcount and statements about labor reductions and cost savings. Bunge claimed headcount reduction and cost savings would not be significant. However, based on our analysis at least 10% or more of the combined workforce vanished."

"During FY2018, PBH changed its organic revenue disclosure to “organic & proforma revenue growth” to include the benefit of the acquired brands growth. We believe investors should not give management credit for the high growth of PBH’s recently acquired brands."

"We find it concerning that management’s definition of “cloud revenue” is not consistent between its press releases and financial statements, with its SEC filings noting that cloud revenue includes “term-based licenses, which are recognized at a point in time.”"

"After spending a decade pushing high frequency stimulation and trashing low-frequency as ineffective and dangerous, experts described the company’s sudden embrace of low-frequency as an admission of defeat and a sign the company is going "the way of the Dodo.""

"2.5% of equity capital would imply Claims Paying Resources of $286bn, over 10 times the cumulative losses in the GSEs' single-family guarantee business during the financial crisis, based on our estimates of actual credit losses excluding subprime and Alt-A MBS"

"USCR just started providing some data to allow for an analysis of its underlying organic growth rate. We find that underlying volume growth has essentially averaged zero, after adjusting for price increases, which are primarily a function of rising input costs"

"The independent directors of DuPont, who own very little stock (collectively ~$20mm in shares(1)), have repeatedly failed to hold management accountable for missing its publicly stated financial targets; it is time for an "ownership mentality" in the Boardroom"

"How is it possible that Lightspeed experienced no organic revenue decline as COVID-19 swept worldwide? Its closest revenue peers in the POS technology space, Par Technologies, Agilysys and Toast, experienced sales declines of -19%, -25% and -27%, respectively."

"With one fatal adverse event in FAERS plus and another six across clinical trials, we arrive at 2.83 fatal events per million daily doses sold – more than 100 times greater than the .025 shown below for terfenadine, and about 300 times greater than astemizole."

"Like I said at the very beginning, if I were given one option, I would drop Berkeley Lights and rely on hybridoma. Yes, it takes time, and it's labor-intensive, perhaps, but it's still one of our most robust and reliable ways to identify an antibody of choice."

"Accumulate 100 Volume Points by either: Ordering products from Herbalife at full Suggested Retail Price [1 Volume Point for every 12 RMB (~ $1.96) worth of Herbalife products], or Building a downline of other participants who then order products from Herbalife"

"Today, we reveal why we believe EHang (NASDAQ: EH) is an elaborate stock promotion, built on largely fabricated revenues based on sham sales contracts with a customer who appears to us to be more interested in helping inflate the value of its investment in EH."

"When combining the opportunity to rationalize certain Technology and Development expenses with other growth and margin improvement opportunities, we believe GoDaddy should commit to delivering a growth + profitability metric of at least 40% by the end of 2024."

"The result of these renewal assumptions is to add approximately $3,000 in value for each PPA customer. RUN's business is too new for there to be any empirical evidence to support these assumptions, and we are highly skeptical that this value will materialize."

"We expect that many of the existing HSIC analysts and Animal Health sector analysts will be adding Vets First Corp to their coverage universe. Therefore, we expect between six to ten analysts to cover Vets First Choice soon after the transaction is completed."

"Mr. Terreson, with approximately two decades of investment-analyst experience, must understand that investors do not "usually"—and certainly not "appropriately"—construct a peer group that effectively excludes the Company’s two core peers, Marathon and Valero"

"The company was founded in 2010 and is known for its secrecy, saying little for a decade until the SPAC. Now suddenly hungry for airtime, it still refuses to say much about its actual underlying technology – even appearing to get testy when asked for details."

"In one IonQ promotional piece and interview after another, CEO Peter Chapman portrays himself as a child prodigy who began programming at age 16 at MIT at the Artificial Intelligence Lab – "a super smart genius type character" according to a recent interview."

"Between spaces completed since 2020 and what's still in the pipeline, the [Austin] office market will grow nearly 25% – the fastest rate on the continent...Roughly 87% of new office space is expected to open vacant, according to data from Cushman & Wakefield."

"In 2004, McDonald's company-operated restaurants appeared to contribute 46% of total EBITDA. However, once adjusted for a franchise fee and a market rent fee, McOpCo constituted only 22% of total EBITDA, with Brand McDonald's contributing 78% of total EBITDA."

"In other words, the 96,000 test-tube equivalent capacity of the chip has spectacularly backfired – sort of like a plane that’s a thousand times larger than a typical one and has to spend days at the airport gathering passengers to amortize the fuel and labor."

"Comments by Twist’s CFO on recent earnings calls state that the vast majority of the recent capex is for their new, so-called “Factory of the Future” in Wilsonville, Oregon – about $88MM through FY2022, based on our total of figures provided on various calls."

"Independent proxy advisor Glass Lewis, citing Phillips 66’s (NYSE: PSX) underperformance and poor governance, recommends that shareholders support Elliott’s case for urgent change by voting for board nominees Brian Coffman, Sigmund Cornelius and Michael Heim."

"To ensure the election of Nelson Peltz and Jay Rasulo, it is essential that shareholders vote “FOR” Trian Nominees, Nelson Peltz and Jay Rasulo, and “WITHHOLD” on Disney Nominees Michael B.G. Froman and Maria Elena Lagomasino and All Three Blackwells Nominees"

"TCM's and Cartoon Network's 2005E EBITDA margins are estimated to be towards the high end of the profitability of other cable networks. TNT's and CNN's estimated 2005E margins of approximately 39% and 35% respectively, fall in the mid-to low end of the range."

"MSCI and analysts talked up RCA's mid-to-high teens revenue growth and high and improving renewal rates. However, within a year after the acquisition, the evidence points to substantially lower revenue growth and MSCI stopped reporting RCA's Run-Rate revenue."

"Trian believes the successful execution of management's new strategic plan could result in Lazard earning slightly more than $3.50 per share in 2014, which could translate into an implied value per share of more than double the current trading price of $23.09"

"Intuit is one of the most US-centric software companies. We believe Intuit management often talks up the 50% international customer base of Mailchimp to suggest that it will catalyze international success despite years of struggles and little product synergy."