Contrarian Corpus
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Callouts & quotes from 10,384+ activist slides

Every emphasised callout and every pulled quote, extracted slide-by-slide. Search by keyword, filter by slide type or by source.

Showing 2221–2280 of 10,384
quote ceo quote

""In terms of profitability, we make very good money in China, somewhat above our corporate average. So we feel very good about not only the growth, but also the profitability there as well too. And I'd say that our Chinese organization is a very strong organization, it's a very strong team not from the leadership level all the way down, 15 of our of our top executives there -- out of the top 15 executives, 14 of them are Chinese nationals, they've been very long tenured with the organization." — CFO, BofA/ML Conference, May 5, 2019"

Mettler-Toledo International, Inc. · MTD Spruce Point Capital · p. 87
quote villain critique

""The Company's financial reporting and auditing systems strictly follow U.S. GAAP rules and internal and external controls are supervised closely and approved by our outside auditors, one of the Big Five international accounting firms," said Karen Sarid, Chief Financial Officer. "Allegations of overstatement of revenue and income, as described by the lawsuit announced on October 23, have no basis in fact and will be vigorously defended against." — ESC Medical Systems Responds to Recent Class Action Lawsuits, Nov 11, 1998, Bloomberg"

Perion Network Ltd. · PERI Spruce Point Capital · p. 33
quote ceo quote

""These covenants apply to Darden and to certain of its subsidiaries but do not apply to Darden's subsidiaries that are not corporations." — Final Prospectus Supplement to Darden Restaurants, Inc. 3.350% Senior Notes due 2022, October 1, 2012; "Accordingly, Darden can contribute its real estate assets to a new subsidiary and designate that subsidiary as an Unrestricted Subsidiary. That Unrestricted Subsidiary could then sell and lease back its real estate portfolio, without having to repay debt." — Covenant Review, February 28, 2014"

Darden Restaurants, Inc. · DRI Starboard Value · p. 76
quote ceo quote

""And finally, I want to finish with our Steel business. After speaking with many of you, this is clearly the most misunderstood business within The Timken Company from the general population. To start with, it's first of all very important to understand this business is not Nucor; it's not U. S. Steel. We don't even compete with those kinds of people. This is an engineered materials business that is focused on providing complex technical solutions to mechanical power transmission markets." — Chris Coughlin, Group President, 12/6/11"

The Timken Company · TKR Relational Investors · p. 29
quote villain critique

"my daughter is 5 we stopped due to her blood sugar going up, they said it 'likely' would level out...I don't want to take that risk — Anonymous Parent. we are seeing blood sugars very high due to vykat...diet is very good no sweets...any one else seeing blood sugar spikes? — Anonymous Parent. his starting level was 85...he spiked at the end of the first week as high as 133...we are back down to 112 on the third week — Anonymous Parent. we were at 87 before starting and did touch low 100s a couple of weeks ago... — Anonymous Parent."

Soleno Therapeutics · SLNO Scorpion Capital · p. 172
quote villain critique

"“Together with the problem with the source of off-gassing, also the stage has a problem with particulation and off-gassing, all of them contribute now to the degradation of the imaging optics and also the particulation on the actual mask of the inspection. And this one, you cannot clean. It coats the source of the EUV light until it develops a few mono-layers of coating of this organic composition, and gradually, you lose it, and you have to replace it.” — Former KLA executive in a leadership role in their EUV mask inspection group"

Lasertec Corporation · 6920 Scorpion Capital · p. 112
quote villain critique

"Absolutely does; it’s at least an order of magnitude off on the revenue side. I could see tens of millions if everything went right, but where are you going to get the volumes you mentioned? The pipeline can be 10 or 20 years to get significant volumes, so its difficult to imagine hundreds of millions of dollars on the recycling side. Margins will be negative, and I wouldn’t want that much capacity. I don’t see it. It’s way too early to talk about that kind of money and volumes and that number of players. — Lithium Industry Expert"

quote ceo quote

""So, what we see is the CapEx that we're spending for things like fiber for small cells is very much in our head like an acquisition." — CFO Daniel Schlanger, May 2017; "[T]hat's why we are very excited about small cells because as you think about the total return story there, with the second tenant being low to mid-teens plus the escalator, the opportunity to do third and fourth tenant, we think that's a very attractive investment that will drive growth in dividend over the long-term." — Crown Castle Investor Relations, June 2016"

Crown Castle International · CCI Elliott Management · p. 28
quote villain critique

"“Notice the Y-axis is state of charge. It's a percentage, a ratio. Let me give you an example. A lithium-ion 18650 cell is 3.5 amp hour, with a nominal voltage of 3.6V. At 100% state of charge, these cells are rated at more than 10-watt hours. For the Quantumscape single-layer pouch cell, I bet that capacity is less than 200 milliwatt hour, which is at least 10 times less than the 18650 cell. The Quantumscape data is particularly impractical because their denominator is much, much smaller.” — Leading solid state battery researcher"

QuantumScape · QS Scorpion Capital · p. 92
quote nominee bio

""One of the key factors to our [Ultra's] success over the past 11 or 12 years has been our cost structure. We've maintained a leading position in terms of all-in costs in the industry." — Mark Smith, Shareholder Nominee, CFO Ultra Petroleum, May 2012; "For our [Anadarko's] onshore portfolio [goal] of delivering 49% organic growth, it is all about execution. It is about being a gas manufacturing engine, and we've created that in the Rockies and our Southern Region." — Karl Kurz, Shareholder Nominee, Former COO Anadarko, August 2008"

Hess Corporation · HES Elliott Management · p. 37
quote villain critique

"We have identified and are currently reviewing certain customer transactions for which revenue was recognized and reported in the consolidated financial statements of Stratus Technologies International, S.à r.l. for fiscal 2004 and the first quarter of fiscal 2005... the consolidated financial statements of Stratus Technologies International, S.à r.l. for fiscal 2004 and the first quarter of fiscal 2005 should not be relied upon as an accurate reflection of our financial results for these periods. — Stratus Technologies prospectus"

Oatly Group AB · OTLY Spruce Point Capital · p. 24
quote appendix methodology

"2.48.6 Solar panels generate electricity in direct current (DC) form. A number of panels feed an external inverter, which is used to convert the electricity to alternating current (AC). After inversion a transformer will step-up the voltage for export to the grid. Because the inverter is separate from the panels, the total capacity of a solar farm can be measured either in terms of the combined capacity of installed solar panels (measured in DC) or in terms of combined capacity of installed inverters (measured in AC). — Draft EN-3"

BP plc · BP Bluebell Capital · p. 18
quote villain critique

"“I work with TransMedics closely in operating rooms and [I’m] hearing feedback from surgeons at the University of [redacted]”; “it was shocking to find out that surgeons are not licensed...some are problematic because they’ve been through a disciplinary system...and can’t get jobs elsewhere. Often, when you hear that you have a career procurement surgeon, you know that there’s probably something shady in their past, and that’s just the way it is.” — Organ procurement technician at a high-volume Northwest academic transplant center"

TransMedics Group Inc · TMDX Scorpion Capital · p. 202
quote villain critique

""everything I know about LifePort and the research published out of Columbia shows that it is superior to TransMedics for liver" — Transplant surgeon; "I definitely think there are threats on the horizon" — Transplant surgeon at a high-volume West Coast academic center; "The only companies in the U.S. approved for lung are XVIVO and TransMedics. For heart, TransMedics is the only device approved, but they're competing against NRP, which is what we use." — Prominent surgeon, Director of leading West Coast academic transplant center"

TransMedics Group Inc · TMDX Scorpion Capital · p. 307
quote ceo quote

"Rhon Daguro: It’s absolutely the chip. Danny Lewis: As in putting a chip inside your body that gives you up to the second data about everything, from glucose levels to the effect of medications. Rhon Daguro: The number one use case for a chip is really to get the vitals of yourself. We’ve created all these external sensors on our bodies to be able to do this thing to be more convenient. Then I think the next evolution is to be able to just use it to interact with your digital environment or your physical environment. — WSJ podcast"

authID Inc. · AUID White Diamond Research · p. 5
quote villain critique

""Our Board has determined that each member of the Audit and Risk Committee is both independent (as defined under applicable Nasdaq listing standards and SEC rules related to audit committee members) and financially literate (as required by Nasdaq listing standards). The Board also has determined that each of Mr. Szkutak, Mr. Vazquez, and Mr. Yuan qualifies as an "audit committee financial expert" as defined by SEC rules, and has "financial sophistication" in accordance with Nasdaq listing standards." — Intuit 2024 Proxy Statement"

Intuit Inc. · INTU Spruce Point Capital · p. 113
quote villain critique

"“Given the fact, to your question, you don’t have a policies-governed reporting system, it doesn’t make me fall off my chair that it is indeed possible to manipulate the numbers. Absolutely, absolutely. It is, it is the manual way things are put together. By design it is possible... I’m running a company of [far fewer employees]... Even in my company, I have no doubt that I could not [manipulate numbers].” — Source A; “I’m not saying it is happening, but there are definitely opportunities to change or manipulate data.” — Source B"

Eurofins Scientific SE · ERF Muddy Waters · p. 18
quote peer gap

"“Because when we delight our members, we can drive more engagement, revenue and profit than the competition...Our goals are to sustain healthy revenue growth, expand operating margin and deliver growing free cash flow... Since our global launch in 2016, we’ve been able to invest heavily in our slate...while steadily increasing our operating margins (up more than 5X, from 4% to 21% over the same period) and growing our free cash flow (from negative $3.3B in 2019 to positive $6.9B in 2023).” — Netflix Q4 2023 Letter to Shareholders"

The Walt Disney Company · DIS Trian Partners · p. 99
quote appendix data

"We treat Vivion’s €1.3 billion of shareholder loans as of June 30, 2021 as equity, given the strong equity components in the documentation. These include deep subordination to other instruments in the capital structure, long maturities beyond any of Vivion’s outstanding interest-bearing debt, and Vivion’s option to convert the loans into common equity at its sole discretion. We understand that this was an extraordinary and voluntary dividend-like payment in the context of substantial liquidity after the disposals in 2021... — S&P"

Vivion Investments S.à.r.l. Muddy Waters · p. 10
quote ceo quote

""And the second one on your guidance for French EBIT in 2016, I know it's a sales conference call but you give some guidance on earnings in France next year. So I have an easy question, how can you split the improvement between purchasing and OpEx efficiency? Thank you." — Cedric Lecasble, Raymond James; "On your question on the French EBIT, you know our business model. You see that when you have a ....operational leverage generated by good volume growth you get technically an improvement." — Antoine Giscard d'Estaing, Casino CFO"

quote villain critique

"“I can't speak to their outcomes overall. But I do know that there are members of the transplant community, myself included, have called for publication of the livers that are not used or the complications related to livers that have been on OCS pump, and they declined. TransMedics declined to publish that data. Like that is not being very honest...it's their responsibility to vet their surgeons and they should publish it and be forthcoming.” — Chief of transplant surgery at a major transplant center; high volume TransMedics user"

TransMedics Group Inc · TMDX Scorpion Capital · p. 265
quote ceo quote

"And let me add one thing, Catherine. I mean I always see it as advantage for a company like Ströer that they have representation of the founding families in the supervisory board. 80% of -- at least 80% of the [indiscernible] -- of the value of the families are inside the stock of the company. So it's I think, for every shareholder, the best insurance that the founding families and their representatives in supervisory board will do everything to drive a sustainable value development for future generations. — Udo Müller, Ströer SE"

Stroer SE & Co. KGaA · SAX Muddy Waters · p. 18
quote villain critique

"Other sales and revenues, which includes gains on the sales of loans we originate, GAP waiver coverage and sales commissions on VSCs and totaled $33.4 million and $13.0 million during the years ended December 31, 2017 , respectively. We expect other sales and revenues to increase with retail units sold and as we improve our ability to offer attractive financing solutions and ancillary products to our customers. Other sales and revenues are 100% gross margin products for which gross profit equals revenue. — CVNA FY 17 10-K, Pg. 54"

Carvana Co. · CVNA Spruce Point Capital · p. 58
quote villain critique

"“If they haven’t taken any reserves or impairments against their total balance sheet, then with the cost of their inventory - we’ve seen it before, where the valuation that they place is not what it actually is, and they defer out when they’re going to do that impairment because they don’t want to record a hit on their gross margin. This is a common thing, unfortunately, that I’ve seen across multiple companies in the space. That I’ve actively seen to be done to try to manipulate earnings.” — Senior employee at Marvell Technology"

Lasertec Corporation · 6920 Scorpion Capital · p. 239
quote ceo quote

""And then the last big competitor we have is sort of the group of farm and ranch players, led, I guess, by Tractor Supply, and they continue to hold a EDLP strategy, and frankly, continue to raise their prices, right?" — Q1'23, July 27, 2022. "And while we compete against very formidable companies like Tractor Supply and Amazon, and we do want to go head-to-head with the best in the world, in order for us to be successful, we really just need to be able to outcompete guys that have 1 store or 5 stores," — ICR Conf: Jan 11, 2021."

Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. · BOOT Spruce Point Capital · p. 25
quote villain critique

"“Let’s say 15 large pharmaceutical companies that have commercial products, and let’s say another 30 to 40 companies who are enlisted clinical development and are planning to go commercial in the next five years. I think those are the only other companies that would probably want to invest in something like this because they are going commercial; when you’re going commercial, you’re expecting a lot of funding, but then you’re also expecting to reinvest some of that money in your next-generation pipeline.” — Takeda lead scientist"

Berkeley Lights · BLI Scorpion Capital · p. 94
quote villain critique

"What really upset me was I’d get two different stories, one from the patient and a different one from the rep. I would talk to a patient and they’d be like, get this piece of shit out of me. Then I’d send a rep to see them who’d say the patients had 50% pain relief. That was Nevro’s big thing. 50% pain relief. I had various discussions with them. I’d go to dinner with the higher ups. And they’re all talking 50% pain relief, and I’m like don’t you ever want to try getting better than 50%? — Prominent KOL and high volume implanter"

Nevro Corp. · NVRO Scorpion Capital · p. 116
quote villain critique

""Trial leads are often given to a facility for like $100, sometimes even less. They're trying to incent physicians to do trial leads. The idea from a company's perspective is that if we get the trial we're going to sell a stimulator for $25,000." — Former Nevro executive; "A lot of doctors own a surgical center and Medicare reimbursement at ASC's for doing a trial is $4686 per lead... so, now I'm an ASC owner, and I'm a doctor. What do I do when I see questionable patients and injection pays $30?" — Former Nevro district manager"

Nevro Corp. · NVRO Scorpion Capital · p. 229
quote precedent table

""We have conducted on the ground due diligence in China and believe that Ballard's Chinese growth ambitions are likely to fail from weak partnerships with Broad Ocean and Synergy." — Spruce Point; "Our Q3 results and full-year outlook have been adversely impacted primarily by recent headwinds in the China fuel cell market... These challenges resulted in slower than expected stock sales by the Synergy-Ballard JV, and a resulting buildup of inventory and working capital pressures." — R. Randall MacEwen - CEO, Ballard Power Systems"

Plug Power Inc. · PLUG Spruce Point Capital · p. 6
quote villain critique

"“Like I said, my impression is that it's down at least as often as the Ushio light source...they have similar issues...they have the exact same inspection issues, so the Lasertec Urashima source has all the same problems. The light source has its own set of weaknesses. I think that probably contributes to downtime on that machine. At the same time, the weaknesses of the Ushio source has sometimes caused issues on that machine.” — Ushio field engineer who maintains light sources on Lasertec ACTIS A150 machines at Intel Oregon fab"

Lasertec Corporation · 6920 Scorpion Capital · p. 154
quote villain critique

"The public market guys, some of them are playing the momentum game and others have no idea what they’re investing in. When you watch the Q2 numbers come out in July and if we stay at kind of BTC $50-$70k range the music is going to end here… People are going to start to sell out of these stocks and realize that they [publicly listed miners] made the wrong investment decision over the years, prioritizing growth over operational efficiencies. — Senior executive, leading provider of products and services to bitcoin mining industry"

Riot Platforms, Inc. · RIOT Kerrisdale Capital · p. 6
quote ceo quote

"“I would say that's almost certainly the case. It certainly was the case when I worked there. We built 300 cells a day, and a few of them were okay to test.” — Former employee; “QS-0 is intended to have a continuous flow, high automation line capable of building over 100,000 engineering cell samples per year. We expect to secure a long-term lease for a second building with approximately two hundred thousand square feet in the second half of this year and for QS-0 to be producing cells by 2023.” — Letter to Shareholders, 2/16/21"

QuantumScape · QS Scorpion Capital · p. 138
quote peer gap

""So, between the new jet engine, development on both forgings and castings, we're going to grow this business to $1 billion in revenue by the end of the decade. A lot of that is based on projections of the build rates, a lot of that is secured already in LTAs, and we're very confident that we're going to hit that target. We'll see a nice step-up in revenue this year, in 2016, over this number from 2015, and then growth from there through the balance of the decade." — Pat DeCourcy, ATI Senior Vice President and CFO, June 9, 2016"

Arconic Inc. · ARNC Elliott Management · p. 182
quote peer gap

"“…new competitors are coming in with more or less the same offering, but with lower prices…You invested millions of dollars in generating [peer-reviewed articles]…Because any of these new guys, like Beat2Phone, CAM patch from Bardy, Bittium, can easily beat you by putting the same thing, data on filing, and reducing the price by 30%…I’m not saying that Philips is in this, but the smaller ones are definitely very aggressive, let’s put it like this, or the newcomers.” — Tegus Interview with Director at Philips Healthcare, 6/27/24"

iRhythm Technologies, Inc. · IRTC Spruce Point Capital · p. 30
quote villain critique

"I have zero confidence this team can get this right and certainly not in the timeframe that is needed. I rarely call for wholesale change at a company, but that is what is needed here. — Top 10 Active Shareholder; We see the numbers, not just every quarter when we have the board meeting here, but we know where the trajectory has been. Then actually when we meet with Bob Jordan and Andrew Watterson, we bring these concerns up... We have years of disdain from leadership, and that’s how labor has been treated... — SWAPA leadership"

Southwest Airlines · LUV Carl Icahn · p. 7
quote peer gap

"Because when we delight our members, we can drive more engagement, revenue and profit than the competition...Our goals are to sustain healthy revenue growth, expand operating margin and deliver growing free cash flow... Since our global launch in 2016, we've been able to invest heavily in our slate...while steadily increasing our operating margins (up more than 5X, from 4% to 21% over the same period) and growing our free cash flow (from negative $3.3B in 2019 to positive $6.9B in 2023). — Netflix Q4 2023 Letter to Shareholders"

The Walt Disney Company · DIS Trian Partners · p. 99
quote villain critique

"Under the agreement the Company made a prepayment to Ginkgo of $ 30.0 million for its foundry services that will be provided to the Company over an initial term of five years . At December 31, 2020, the Company had remaining balances of $ 4.7 million and $ 8.9 million of current and non-current pre-paid research and development costs related to this transaction, respectively. For the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company used $ 13.6 million of the pre-paid research and development expenses. — Synlogic 10K filed Mar 25, 2021"

Ginkgo Bioworks · DNA Scorpion Capital · p. 65
quote villain critique

""Higher-level Distributors who are eligible to receive reward payments frequently buy Herbalife products in order to meet the thresholds for obtaining these rewards, rather than to satisfy consumer demand... analysis of Defendants’ purchasing data reflects... they frequently purchased almost precisely the amount of product necessary to qualify for the payment." — FTC v. Herbalife International of America, Inc., et al. (July 15, 2016). Case No.2:16-cv-05217, Complaint for Permanent Injunction and Other Equitable Relief, at p.37."

Unknown · p. 15
quote executive summary

"the trick was to get it covered under cataplexy...now, we market it for - I don’t know what we said....” He described a wink-wink game where reps coach or cajole the doctor to indicate cataplexy by “really stretching it...so, you get into games like that....” — Ex-territory manager. “morale amongst the salesforce is really low...it’s not a happy environment...it’s a pretty sour environment,” and indicated increasing management pressure: “there’s certainly more pressure...I’ve heard that they are struggling.” — Ex-sales manager."

Harmony Biosciences Holdings · HRMY Scorpion Capital · p. 15
quote other

"My suspicion is it was the light source. The light source didn't perform, so the customer demands a new light source. And I heard the light source alone costs $10 million. So, if they are forced to replace the light source two or three times until it functions properly, that will cost them $40 million, almost as much as a new tool, as you mentioned, $40 million being the price. It can be very costly to replace parts. That's my suspicion. — Longtime, senior semicap equipment executive in Japan who is friendly with Lasertec’s CEO"

Lasertec Corporation · 6920 Scorpion Capital · p. 251
quote appendix data

"När priset fastställdes till USD 220 miljoner innebar detta dock ett högre pris än vad skulle gällt enbart enligt prismodellen i Aktieägaravtalet. Enligt uppgift uppfattades prismodellen mer som en referenspunkt när transaktionen förhandlades ... Den framtida värdeutvecklingen på Coscom bedömdes också vara mycket positiv. Det högre priset jämfört med en tillämpning av prismodellen i Aktieägaravtalet motiverades också av att Takilant inte var tvingat att sälja aktierna samtidigt som TeliaSonera, mot — Mannheimer Swartling report"

TeliaSonera AB · TLSN Muddy Waters · p. 14
quote ceo quote

""It is said that leadership is the ability to guide or direct others. We would add to that definition the ability to inspire, enthuse, motivate and encourage – for starters. The fact is, Darden Restaurants leadership manifests itself in hundreds of ways every day. Indeed, we consider leadership excellence to be the essential strategic plank of our business model....leadership creates value for all of our stakeholders – guests, investors, employees, vendors and the community." — Darden 2004 Annual Report (Joe Lee's last as CEO)"

Darden Restaurants, Inc. · DRI Starboard Value · p. 62
quote transition

"This reduction in financial strength would eventually cause rating agencies to lower credit ratings of these life insurers, which in turn would trigger a reduction in confidence of investors, customers and agents of the life insurer. This could ultimately result in reductions in sales, increases in customers terminating their contracts, increase pressure on the liquidity of the company and reduce ability to raise capital; This cascading sequence of events ultimately has the potential to cause the insurer to become insolvent..."

quote other

"Compared to an independent midstream pipeline operator, refiners want to keep more excess capacity than they could possibly use on their pipelines. This guarantees that they won't have any system bottlenecks impacting the refinery. Conversely, when a midstream operator owns those pipelines, they want to keep assets as full as possible. — Industry Expert; Utilization just isn't a concern for a proprietary pipeline like it is for an independent. Independent operators are hyper-focused on maximizing utilization. — Industry Expert"

Marathon Petroleum Corporation · MPC Elliott Management · p. 40
quote ceo quote

""It is said that leadership is the ability to guide or direct others. We would add to that definition the ability to inspire, enthuse, motivate and encourage – for starters. The fact is, Darden Restaurants leadership manifests itself in hundreds of ways every day. Indeed, we consider leadership excellence to be the essential strategic plank of our business model....leadership creates value for all of our stakeholders – guests, investors, employees, vendors and the community." — Darden 2004 Annual Report (Joe Lee's last as CEO)"

Darden Restaurants, Inc. · DRI Starboard Value · p. 62
quote villain critique

""I hate to break it to you...the [power] generation that they're [data center operators] citing is mostly not renewable and mostly not carbon free...Nuclear SMRs hopefully will be great, but they're not a productionized technology at scale today." — Astrid Atkinson, CEO Camus Energy at DER Task Force conference. "We are very interested in innovation in data centers...as long as it has a 20-year track record." — Former SVP Prime Data Centers, a Global Data Center Developer & Operator, 30 years in data center project development"

Oklo Inc. · OKLO Kerrisdale Capital · p. 17
quote process diagram

"[Y]ou do not have to be a visionary to see that the media industry has changed dramatically over the past few years. Consolidation was a necessary and positive trend in the evolution of these businesses. But we have entered a new era of rapid technological change and global competition. Bulk will not assure success. Agility [and] innovation will separate the winners from the losers. In the 21st century, large is no longer in charge. — Sumner Redstone, Final Transcript of Viacom Q2 2005 Earnings Conference Call, August 4, 2005."

Time Warner Inc. · TWX Carl Icahn · p. 12
quote villain critique

"The Berkeley Lights machines are not being used much. Not beyond tinkering. People are just trying these things out to see if they can use them—from what I've seen, there's limited use. We tend to waste a lot of money in R&D. It's frustrating to see. We waste a lot of money. Berkeley Lights isn't the only one. We have machines just sitting around that were used once a twice that we spent half a million on. So, that's not an entirely problematic concept, unfortunately. We blow a lot of money. — Bristol Meyers Squibb employee #1"

Berkeley Lights · BLI Scorpion Capital · p. 50
quote villain critique

"“Our group is actually one of the primary groups that publish on this, and we have a really hard time getting our publications through peer review because people are skeptical, and rightfully so, of the work that we do on Beacon because it is unusual, it is a foreign environment, and it is a very different approach to things. So, we have to do a lot of extra validation, a lot of really convincing reviewers that what we're showing is actually real. I think that's a big challenge.” — Leading academic institution/ex-BLI scientist"

Berkeley Lights · BLI Scorpion Capital · p. 118
quote ceo quote

""Citing some specific local GAAP requirements in how to report cash and equivalents in condensed local statutory accounts filings to build a story about potential double-counting of cash at Group level, when all these intercompany transactions are eliminated in the Consolidated financials, and cash amounts are systematically audited at both local and consolidated levels based on bank confirmations and other controls with all required communication between accounting teams and auditors." — Eurofins Press Release, June 25, 2024"

Eurofins Scientific SE · ERF Muddy Waters · p. 29
quote ceo quote

""And we already pointed out that in the last quarter we have a path to achieve our 2016 targets. We actually said that we're going to have an EBITDA target of $350 million 2016 on revenues of $1.6 billion... And then on top of it the synergies, and we are at this point in time roughly around 190% – 200% deployed. We have this and the use of the implementation system which gives us a good view inside of it and gives me some comfort that we are on a good path there." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, Q3 2015 Earnings Call, October 8, 2015"

Arconic Inc. · ARNC Elliott Management · p. 94
quote ceo quote

"The regulatory environment in China is evolving, and officials in the Chinese government, including at the local and central level, exercise broad discretion in deciding how to interpret, apply, and enforce regulations as they deem appropriate, including to promote social order. Regulators in China may change how they interpret and enforce the direct selling regulations, both current interpretations and enforcement thereof or future iterations. Regulators in China may also modify the regulations. — Herbalife Q1 2017 Form 10-Q"

Herbalife · HLF Pershing Square · p. 13
quote villain critique

"“What should be of concern is that – 10 to 15, maybe 20% of the worldwide business is public sector, but at Forescout, that was much higher. If you disrupt that – as you know, it’s not linear. To me, as an employee, I was concerned that they were reaching so top-heavy on public sector as a part of the entire business…. If federal now misses, it’s going to have an impact on the whole company…. That could be one of the reasons that we see the overall down-trend in the business.” — Cybersecurity Expert, Former Forescout Employee"

Forescout Technologies · FSCT Spruce Point Capital · p. 45
quote villain critique

"“it’s like a horse pill”; “they’re going to chew it”; “I was concerned because the fourth most common cause of death...is choking...they can’t swallow...their suck reflex is poor...their choking reflex is poor...it’s a problem,,,they would chew,”; “that’s a problem [for Soleno]...this drug has been around since 1976...it’s not a new drug...it’s a new formulation”; “you got a big pill...it might get stuck in the upper part of the esophagus...I’m concerned about choking, particularly younger patients...” — Trial investigator #1"

Soleno Therapeutics · SLNO Scorpion Capital · p. 57
quote villain critique

"“I've got about, at this point, narcolepsy patients past and present are getting up to about—it came closer to 50-something patients. And the big issue, obviously, is the excessive daytime sleepiness in patients where it's interfering with normal activities and work, things like that. So, you had, Wakix was something that sounded very interesting because the consensus was that this wasn't something that would be addictive or patients wouldn't become dependent on it.” — Neurologist at a large hospital system in a Midwest state"

Harmony Biosciences Holdings · HRMY Scorpion Capital · p. 283
quote villain critique

"Higher-level Distributors who are eligible to receive reward payments frequently buy Herbalife products in order to meet the thresholds for obtaining these rewards, rather than to satisfy consumer demand... analysis of Defendants’ purchasing data reflects... they frequently purchased almost precisely the amount of product necessary to qualify for the payment. — FTC v. Herbalife International of America, Inc., et al. (July 15, 2016). Case No.2:16-cv-05217, Complaint for Permanent Injunction and Other Equitable Relief, at p.37."

Herbalife · HLF Pershing Square · p. 15
quote villain critique

"I have zero confidence this team can get this right and certainly not in the timeframe that is needed. I rarely call for wholesale change at a company, but that is what is needed here. — Top 10 Active Shareholder; We see the numbers, not just every quarter when we have the board meeting here, but we know where the trajectory has been. Then actually when we meet with Bob Jordan and Andrew Watterson, we bring these concerns up... We have years of disdain from leadership, and that’s how labor has been treated. — SWAPA leadership"

Southwest Airlines · LUV Elliott Management · p. 7
quote other

"“...if you're looking at diagnosis codes, so guys that have the N40.1 or the subcodes beneath that who have a diagnosis of symptomatic BPH...that's a really misleading number, because that code will get dropped in all kinds of situations that really may not mean this guy has symptomatic BPH. It's just a function of how a lot of PSA tests are ordered; people just use that code for that. So there's probably a significant overestimation of total disease burden.” — Spruce Point Interview with Private Practice Urologist, Dec 2024"

PROCEPT BioRobotics Corporation · PRCT Spruce Point Capital · p. 53
quote other

"I’d say it’s early days and we’ve always said this is going to be a 5-year journey with KYMRIAH to really get it to be the globally successful brand we want it to be. On manufacturing, we have seen some variability in our product specifications. — Vasant Narsimhan, Novartis CEO, July 2018; Let’s first make a comment about manufacturing and gene therapy of CAR-Ts. I think we all need to be aware, this is an extremely new field. A lot of manufacturing technologies are under development. — Richard Ridinger, Lonza CEO, July 2018"

Bristol-Myers Squibb · BMY Starboard Value · p. 112
quote villain critique

"Keith is definitely a more polished individual but his understanding of the technology that he’s speaking to, and the way that’s going to be received by physicians, is naïve. Grossman describes Omnia as really just the marketing, like the same marketing spin that was being presented at NANS. I don’t think he understands the way that these physicians work and their desire to have new and innovative products. Omnia is not a new or innovative product. It’s basically just a repackaging of an old product. — Former Nevro executive"

Nevro Corp. · NVRO Scorpion Capital · p. 177