Callouts & quotes from 26,677+ activist slides

"HASI appears to have booked non-cash interest income from SunStrong PIKs totaling $26.4 million over 2019-2021 per SunStrong’s cash flow statement, which is approximately 9.5% of HASI’s interest income during this time."

"The Company disclosed its SSR growth rate of 1.2% in 2016. Our industry normalized definition of same store property performance suggests that that SSR declined by 0.8% in that period – an astounding 2.0% overstatement."

"Twist basically has no intellectual property, and that there are “20 different companies developing different technologies which have proof of principle...or have the potential to compete quite dramatically with Twist.”"

"The current environment has set the stage for tenants with value-focused concepts, which are performing well in today’s market, to expand and replace underperforming tenants. This mall “refresh” creates a virtuous cycle"

"NQ's lack of physical presence and virtually non-existent effort to update its merchandise, or build out its retail distribution are a clear sign their fraud is not focused on Chinese consumers, but rather US investors."

"If the product mix has not changed to one materially more valuable per kg and import weights are substantially correct, then ELF seemingly must have significant overstatements in its Inventory, COGS, and Sales accounts."

"We also note that, despite the reported growth in the value of Amdocs' European assets, the Company has cut back on its European locations since early 2017, as demonstrated by recent changes to its "Contact Us" webpage."

"However, a current review of these supermarket websites does not show the product available. At larger supermarket chains that are stocking the product, we find consistent discounting to as low as $0.71 cents per ounce."

"Despite Disney's advantages, the Company had underperformed over all relevant periods up until the time we emerged with our campaign in October 2023...and even when measured all the way through the end of February 2024."

"By consolidating Hulu and Disney+ into one product and organization, Disney may improve per subscriber unit economics and realize cost efficiencies that Wall Street research analysts estimate could amount to ~$1 billion"

"In The Context Of TASK's Chief Accounting Officer Not Having A CPA, And A DWI + Disorderly Conduct Record, We Question The Errors And Aggressive, If Not Outright Incorrect, Financial Assumptions And Presentation Methods"

"In the end, Apellis and Syfovre might have the same fate as Henry Winkler last company he did commercial for, One Reverse Mortgages which ended up getting shut down mired by fraud lawsuits....Just another “Fonzi Scheme”"

"Until we receive an explanation of how FMCN could rack up such a large impairment charge without buying ZHPY for well more than it was worth, our conclusion that FMCN deliberately and massively overpaid for ZHPY stands."

"we believe that the observed decline in Company performance may represent a Company Material Adverse Effect as defined in the merger agreement, the occurrence of which could give you legal grounds to terminate the deal."

"Machine only works for extremely limited, one-off use cases for certain customers willing to spend years tinkering with it; took expert 2 years and countless tries to get an assay working; few will get utility out of it"

"Economic theory posits that as a firm's weighted average cost of capital rises, the firm's valuation should decline. In a perplexing case, we observe that Stryker's bond holders are selling, driving up its cost of debt."

"In order to sell a deal to the Capital Committee and get Board approval or whatever amount you want, Mobius was like over $200 million, you have to be pretty optimistic with what you think your revenues are going to be."

"Lasertec could be caught with inventory that they're going to have to significantly mark down...they would end up having to impair...could put a lot of pressure on them, which would probably require an asset write-down."

"In order to achieve the optimal outcome, we believe Classifieds must be separated, and a more comprehensive and aggressive operating plan must be put in place to drive profitable growth in the core Marketplace business."

"According to an industry-leading database provider, FTAI sold ~14 aircraft in 2024. Flight tracking databases indicate, and our Consultant confirmed that all the below Mavi Gok transactions are Perpetual Power programs."

"If side effects had occurred at the same rate that they did in the SONAR study, there should have been heart failures associated with fluid retention; the fact that we do not makes for an astonishing contrast in safety."

"Starboard hereby demands inspection pursuant to Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”) and requests that the Company immediately make available for inspection and copying the books and records."

"Ex-Ginkgo employees as well as current employees of these related-party “customers” corroborated our findings that they are located at Ginkgo’s headquarters and are anything but arms-length vendor-customer relationships"

"Recall that Spruce Point called out Maxar Technologies and its use of bank overdrafts which started in 2015. This foreshadowed subsequent challenges in its satellite business, eventual collapse and write-down of assets."

"With a sham pivotal trial and its sole product based on a false theory, reality predictably dawned as Nevro soon faced a device failure crisis leading to its stimulators being surgically removed (“explanted”) in droves."

"CLEAR does not appear to have a sense of urgency in responding to customer requests to delete data. It took three emails and over two weeks for CLEAR to respond. We find this highly alarming and completely unacceptable."

"By consolidating Hulu and Disney+ into one product and organization, Disney may improve per subscriber unit economics and realize cost efficiencies that Wall Street research analysts estimate could amount to ~$1 billion"

"While we acknowledge legal battles can become ugly between parties, we find additional counterclaims by Pereira to be a cause for concern and a poor reflection of Danimer/Meredian's culture if the allegations were true."

"Why did management again embrace operating-type sale/leaseback agreements so quickly, and in such great magnitude, in late 2018 – not long after promoting the liquidity benefits of its shift to capital lease agreements?"

"UCSF’s billing experience lines up perfectly with the mechanism as described by former TransMedics employees – allagedly flying in teams to run up aircraft charges instead of using a local team that’s already available."

"Spruce Point will illustrate why we believe an extreme financial restatement in 2018 at Leidos Security Detection & Automation LLC in the UAE renders its parent’s financial statement susceptible to restatement risk too."

"We spoke with a former Lightspeed Manager who expressed a view that Lightspeed was focused on retaining talent following its acquisitions. However, based on our findings, in many of the deals this has not been the case."

"How is Billy Taubman, Taubman's Chief Operating Officer, supposed to provide an independent review when the Company's operating performance - which he is responsible for - massively underperforms its Class A Mall Peers?"

"The company's shareholder Ding Kunming has resolved: 2. Remove and replace Wu Yonghua as Executive Director and Legal Representative with Ding Kunming. 4. Remove and replace Yan Yongle as Company Supervisor with Li Dan."

"The reduction in cash provided was primarily driven by higher tax payments, the investment in a distribution agreement of select technology and the payment of transaction costs associated with the acquisition of Evoqua."

"Rather than putting the best people in place to drive shareholder value, the Board seems to be making costly deals and poor decisions at the expense of shareholders in order to insulate Mr. Shaw and incumbent directors."

"Bottom line: a number of Faraday Future employees loaned Faraday Future tens of millions with money they borrowed from companies associated with YT’s nephew, Ruokun Jia, right as YT was heading into personal bankruptcy."

"Through our research on Mr. Shi and PLTK's history in the past few years, we believe that Mr. Shi has been using PLTK as his piggy bank, which in the long term will cause great damage to the public shareholders of PLTK."

"Finally, and most importantly, this all has a detrimental effect on SGH's balance sheet. As you can see in the chart below, the cash burn eats into the Company's balance sheet and causes a big problem by fiscal Q4 2020."

"Unfortunately for investors, the SEC does not appear (at least not yet) to have pieced together how misleading the company's AFFO figures are, since the AFFO numbers are engineered to exclude their most important costs."

"TSMC cannot be a growth driver or key customer going forward for Lasertec for other reasons – an alarming fact as it is the world’s largest chipmaker and one of the three anchors that every inspection vendor depends on."

"A close evaluation of the transaction shows that neither the CEO/founder of LiNiCo or Aqua Metals are putting any real cash into the deal. In fact, the Founder is receiving $500,000, but for no explicitly clear reason."

"XPO has abandoned its attempt at expanding organic revenue disclosure post Q1’18. Through YTD Q3’18, organic quarterly revenue growth has averaged 10.8%, yet equates to just 3.2% YTD organic operating cash flow growth."

"How does that fit in with transaction costs of only 329,000 euros declared in the annual financial statement for 2013? Where are the other 1.7 million euros? Or was the statement made at the telephone conference false?"

"In January, we unwound more than 90% of the market value of our hedge, generating $1.25bn in proceeds, and have since replaced a substantial portion of the hedge with additional longer-dated, out-of-the-money swaptions"

"The current operating model appears to prioritize corporate mandates that show little regard for the day-to-day realities of running a restaurant. This is a problem when your business lives and dies on customer service"

"The executive skeptically noted that IonQ “kept referring” to the machine used in the paper “as the 32-qubit machine, blah-blah-blah,” but highlighted the same red flag as the ex-employee: that only 4 qubits were used."

"The RBA leadership team supporting Ms. Fandozzi is exceptionally qualified to adequately integrate IAA, execute on revenue and cost synergies available, and continue driving results in the global used equipment market."

"One of BOOT's strongest selling brands has historically been Ariat and they were frequently disclosed as the #1 brand in the Company's investor presentation. However, BOOT now only discloses its top "exclusive" brands."

"PowerSchool is among the most highly levered companies in its industry; a standout where many peer companies are net cash. Only TWOU, a company that has recently been linked to financial challenges, has worse leverage."

"The current operating model appears to prioritize corporate mandates that show little regard for the day-to-day realities of running a restaurant. This is a problem when your business lives and dies on customer service"

"Spruce Point believes the evidence of Xylem’s struggles can be seen by carefully evaluating its working capital metrics. Days inventory outstanding (DIO) and inventory to sales have increased markedly and are at highs."

"As a result of this poor performance, Elliott believes that new leadership is required at Southwest, which represents the most compelling airline turnaround opportunity in the last two decades, according to the letter."

"Spruce Point, however, believes that bulls have far too naïve a view of Align’s market opportunity, and that they overlook material barriers which will make it difficult for the Company to expand into both sub-markets."

"The local host IP, 127.0.0.1, suddenly emerged in Killing Time’s gifting pattern, which we believe indicates an accidental leak, perhaps caused by a temporary glitch in the software used to mask the user’s real origin."

"From analysis conducted under AMR’s own “independent” and “Qualified Expert” Marshall Miller & Associates, we see that 2021 production was 15.613 million tons, well below the 16.2 – 16.3 million tons claimed elsewhere."

"Spruce Point evaluates Dropbox's sales and marketing spending per net Paying User addition over the trailing twelve month period. We find that customer acquisition costs are exploding, and expect the trend to continue."

"Twist’s positioning is low price/low quality; now realizing cost to prevent errors is "significant"; "screwed up the market" with their pricing but "non-issue" in the end as their quality issues made them uncompetitive"

"Hirshberg’s experience as a senior executive in the energy sector combined with his expertise in engineering, risk management, strategic planning and operations would make him a valuable addition to the Phillips Board."

"CEO Ridge often says, “these targets are probably wrong and roughly right”. We believe analysts targets are probably wrong, and Spruce Point is roughly right that WD-40 will severely disappoint optimistic expectations."