Callouts & quotes from 136+ activist slides

"All five methods for estimating the amount by which Lasertec is fraudulently valuing inventory – and therefore earnings, as well as the magnitude of the impairment charge it is trying to avoid – arrive at roughly the same figure, one that is devastating and indicates the degree to which its stock price has been based on an illusion: an inevitable 65-70% write-down of its $1.1B / ¥162B of inventory as of Mar '24"

"All five methods for estimating the amount by which Lasertec is fraudulently valuing inventory – and therefore earnings, as well as the magnitude of the impairment charge it is trying to avoid – arrive at roughly the same figure, one that is devastating and indicates the degree to which its stock price has been based on an illusion: an inevitable 65-70% write-down of its $1.1B / ¥162B of inventory as of Mar ’24"

"A 5.8 point reduction is well within what common sense indicates is the margin of error in a crude survey like ESS – the reduction is equal to a patient self-reporting that they went from a “high chance” of “dozing” to a “slight chance” in 3 of 8 settings, with still a high chance in each of the other 5 settings like “sitting and reading” or “watching TV.”"

"Mailchimp was supposed to create yet another entry point for QuickBooks to penetrate larger mid-market customers. However, a former employee clearly indicates that Mailchimp suffered a similar churn issue as QuickBooks: the product might be OK when starting out, but customers tend to churn as soon as their needs become a little more sophisticated."

"Despite Heska’s efforts to paint a picture of a transformed company, we believe the evidence (including SEC filings, supplier contracts, legal discovery, reported financials, R&D spend, capital investment, business practices, and actual product shipping in the market) indicates that Heska’s business has changed very little, if at all."

"The industry go-to source PCT recently conducted a poll which indicates that 25% of the industry is now using door-to-door sales. Moreover, in 2021 an article indicated there were 7,000 door-to-door salespeople. Making some modest assumptions indicates at a minimum, 140 million doors could be knocked on by pest salespeople per year."

"Given the totality of our forensic research that indicates Zebra's business is under rising pressures from Chinese competition, diminished returns on R&D and innovation, and poorly timed and levered acquisitions that aren't paying off as planned, we are puzzled as to why Zebra's valuation multiple has been expanding."

"One of the most serious issues – which came up repeatedly in our interviews – is livers becoming necrotic on the device, a known risk specific to normothermic perfusion machines like TransMedics but which our research indicates is far more widespread than known – with surgeons alleging a cover-up by the company."

"As this was a single dose, the steady state level after 7 days (with an accumulation ratio 2.3) is 122 ng/mL +/- 54 ng/mL, far higher than both the 73 ng/mL on the label and the 101 ng/mL in the 2007 pilot study - and indicates patients with 230 ng/mL and 284 ng/mL within two and three standard deviations."

"Poor Controls over Equity Grants: That the board did not become aware until several years after the fact that multiple grants to the CEO were in violation of the Company's incentive plans indicates that it did not have adequate controls in place to monitor the Company's executive compensation practices."

"We find this particularly brazen, as Kalo was only formed 2 weeks earlier as an entity, according to its Massachusetts corporate registry filing, which further indicates that the entity’s “Principal Offices” are Ginkgo’s headquarters, and its 3 ‘Managers’ are Ginkgo’s CEO and two Ginkgo cronies."

"The CLO servicing report for the three CLOs show a total of $1.9 billion of loans that are on the "watchlist" at "6A", which means "Any Other Situation that Indicates an Increased Level of Default Risk that may Create Potential Material Losses to Investors (Lesser of 10% of UPB or $500,000)""

"The substantial $35.8 million gap between these positive contributors and the minimal increase in overall guidance strongly indicates that Tempus's fundamental genomics and data segments are significantly underperforming compared to expectations established just months earlier in February."

"Our research indicates that Biotech Labs has not received the requisite USDA licenses to sell its products in the U.S. This is confirmed by the LinkedIn company description of one of its foreign distributors, Biotech Diagnostics, Maryland-domiciled entity that raises additional questions."

"The Company's opposition to Proposal 6 indicates that its current Board does not truly wish to have all Phillips 66 directors elected annually, and that it would instead prefer to continue enjoying the protections that a staggered Board provides against shareholder accountability."

"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."

"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."

"An investor spoke with FTAI. FTAI confirmed that the new language indicates that the test to report Aerospace Products income on the Operating or Investing side of the Cash Flow Statement is determined by the amount of capitalized costs to the assets while held in Inventory."

"In Q4'23, management disclosed Enhanced Markets (Flex only) is expanding from nine (9) markets to forty (40) in 2024. Spruce Point's research indicates the Flex model is in virtually every major town/city across the U.S. which we assume sits side-by-side with the MBP model."

"At best, Archer is where Joby was a full two years ago. This is generous, as it at that time, Joby had reported 15% completion but had a larger fleet and evidence indicates they had done more R&D and amassed far more flight hours and miles flown than Archer has at present."

"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."

"Amgen employee #2 (cont’d) indicates BLI is “probably not” worth buying for single-cell analysis; competing machines are “a small fraction of the cost” with better use cases versus BLI’s complexity; and that the TAM for BLI is a “pretty limited number” of systems."

"At a minimum, this indicates that iHub has not been driving accelerated cost savings since inception. Furthermore, this savings doesn't reconcile with another claim made by the CEO that iHub contributed 40% (or approximately $25m of 2022 EBITDA contribution)."

"Parcel information corresponding to this location indicates that in 2017 at the time of the transaction, the total estimated market value is $309,000, which is much more in-line with the implied property value calculated using deed tax amounts."

"We identified a variance in employees reported between the 2025 Annual Report and 20-F which were filed at the SEC just two weeks apart. Both figures reference FY 2025 (ending June 30th). The 20-F indicates 35% more employees or 70 vs. 52."

"Comments by current Joyn employees and ex-Ginkgo employees indicates that Ginkgo and its related parties are intermingled; that the relationship is anything but arms-length; and resembles nothing like a typical vendor-customer arrangement"

"Our Analysis of Historical Compensation Indicates CTO Never Would Have Hit Its Threshold for Bonuses If It Had Included Recurring Capex in Its AFFO. Management Has Inflated Its $8 Million Performance Bonuses With Its Made-Up AFFO Metric"

"PERI made a suspicious change to its disclosures of rented servers. In the recently filed 20-F, it changed its historical disclosure from "approximately 1,000" to "thousands" which indicates a multiplicative increase of server rentals."

"APPS CEO claims to have neither the means nor desire to look at other companies' user data, but the evidence in its code indicates the opposite – APP has the means and is engaging in collecting 3P platforms data to construct its PIGs."

"Marvell, another major player, was just as skeptical, sharing color which was damning and indicates that Lasertec’s inventory is worthless and that the A300 is simply a ruse to swap out defective A150’s while disguising it as “growth”"

"The 127.0.0.1 address indicates that a bot, or YY controlled entity was sending transactions from the server itself. This is highly unusual as real users on YY Live are in their own homes, offices, or in public, not on the YY server."

"Put simply, data collected over months directly from BEKE's platform strongly indicates that the Company is massively exaggerating new home GTV and revenue from its platform, a pattern we also see when we analyze existing home sales."

"Colin Whitehouse is listed as the Chairman of CSC. However, Mr. Whitehouse’s LinkedIn page indicates that Mr. Whitehouse is a non-executive chairman of CSC and that he apparently does not even work at the joint venture full-time."

"It seems Zillow's management believes Flex and MBP can coexist in the same markets. We believe Zillow is walking a very fine line and our research indicates that it will be difficult for the two models to coexist in the long run."

"TSMC indicates KLA DUV tools have superior economics, productivity, and throughput vs. Lasertec; using DUV inspection now vs EUV in production; TSMC has basically switched from Lasertec to KLA; “KLA’s share continues to increase”"

"No. Although independent verification reports in China and toilet paper are often intended to hold the same substance, our research indicates that investors are much better off sticking with 2-4 ply toilet paper in the bathroom."

"But it indicates his playbook, which we encourage investors to note, as they gauge the veracity of his claims regarding Nevro's supposed safety, efficacy, and lack of explants, particularly next week at the JP Morgan conference."

"The least squared trendline in figure 1 indicates that the statistically expected outcome for the stock of a suing company is a valuation decline of 80% against the index over the next 6 years (2,192 days) after the publication."

"A review of large REITs indicates that these businesses support investment grade ratings with a debt to enterprise value of 36% on average, as compared to Pro Forma McDonald's which would have a debt to enterprise value of 25%."

"Common sense indicates that if a company has already spent $73MM to outfit a “Factory of the Future” with “laboratory property, equipment, and computers,” the promotional page for it in its investor presentation would show it."

"Red flag 1: QS once again resorts to tricks and gimmicks, some buried in the fine print, which indicates that its 3x3cm prototype was actually charged at a sizzling 30 °C (86 °F) and only then discharged at a low temperature."

"Advertising impressions drive revenues for DV. Recent commentary from key players driving digital advertising indicates overall weakness of digital advertising, but strength in foreign markets were DV is poorly positioned."

"For example, LinkedIn indicates only 6 employees at Allonnia LLC, yet Ginkgo records a $38MM deferred revenue balance, on top of booking $5MM of revenue from Allonnia in 2020 and $2.3MM in Q1 2021 – a $9MM annual run rate."

"Our report only indicates that the evidence collected through this outreach solely suggests that certain local hotels were willing to knowingly offer accommodation in ways that could materially facilitate illegal conduct."

"While this is not evidence of malfeasance, in our opinion, it indicates massive amounts of Related Party Receivables and Payables are netted routinely in Eurofins, and the system for tracking them seems far from perfect."

"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."

"Data indicates that neither GSX nor Gaotu have been trending above most of the private online education platforms in the last 4 years, nor has their popularity risen much recently compared to their private competitors."

"MSCI investors should be alarmed that its Head of IR and Treasurer departed a couple months after the RCA acquisition was announced in August 2021. Her LinkedIn biography indicates she departed in November 2021."

"However, our research indicates that IonQ procured the chips from a third-party vendor operated by Honeywell, its key competitor – as absurd as if AMD purchased CPU’s from Intel and claimed it was “AMD Inside.”"

"Close observation of the chart indicates the claim is dubious. As an initial red flag, the mean hbA1c at week 13 – the end of the Phase 3 double-blind portion – is shown only as pooled average mixed population."

"Our analysis of the data buried in Soleno’s papers indicates an alarming spike in prediabetes and diabetes within 13 weeks of starting Vykat – and a linear increase over 3 years with no signs of a plateau."

"Indeed, the “poison pill” announced on July 3 indicates that this Board feels it needs protection from the Company’s owners, rather than to earn their support. It is tantamount to an admission of failure."

"Indeed, the “poison pill” announced on July 3 indicates that this Board feels it needs protection from the Company’s owners, rather than to earn their support. It is tantamount to an admission of failure."

"Indeed, the “poison pill” announced on July 3 indicates that this Board feels it needs protection from the Company’s owners, rather than to earn their support. It is tantamount to an admission of failure."

"Indeed, the “poison pill” announced on July 3 indicates that this Board feels it needs protection from the Company’s owners, rather than to earn their support. It is tantamount to an admission of failure."

"Indeed, the “poison pill” announced on July 3 indicates that this Board feels it needs protection from the Company’s owners, rather than to earn their support. It is tantamount to an admission of failure."

"Indeed, the “poison pill” announced on July 3 indicates that this Board feels it needs protection from the Company’s owners, rather than to earn their support. It is tantamount to an admission of failure."

"This transparent act of entrenchment by the Board should not go unchecked and we believe indicates a clear need for common stockholders to strongly unite with a louder voice to protect the stockholders."

"FDA review clearly indicates its reliance on the lack of reported serious adverse events at the time of approval in 2019 – now contradicted by the facts (FDA CDER Clinical Review (Solages, Sep 28, 2020)"

"Beyond the fact that inventory to sales metrics have been rising, a closer look at Saputo Australia's raw materials indicates that they are piling-up and likely not being converted to final products."