Callouts & quotes from 349+ activist slides

"If an organization sells goods or services to the public and the participants in the organization obtain monetary benefits from (1) recruiting new members and (2) selling the organization's goods and services to consumers, the organization is deemed a pyramid scheme if the participants obtain their monetary benefits primarily from recruitment rather than the sale of goods and services to consumers. — Dr. Peter J. Vander Nat, Senior Economist at the FTC"

""One thing where I find that the Berkeley Lights story is a little bit of stretch is truly the time savings. We never used it as being able to do cell line development in five days, which I think they do use as one of the selling points. It's five days for that particular step of cell line development. The fastest I've ever been able to go from start to finish with the Beacon and without the Beacon is just under three months' time." — Gilead scientist"

"If an organization sells goods or services to the public and the participants in the organization obtain monetary benefits from (1) recruiting new members and (2) selling the organization’s goods and services to consumers, the organization is deemed a pyramid scheme if the participants obtain their monetary benefits primarily from recruitment rather than the sale of goods and services to consumers — Dr. Peter J. Vander Nat, Senior Economist at the FTC"

"I think there’s a lot of window-dressing with Grossman and that’s why you’re not seeing this big uptake in revenue. If Omnia is so good and you’ve got a hundred more reps out on the field and you’re doing all this great selling and all these customers are happy, why is it not going up? They’ve eroded their price. Nobody’s going to buy Omnia, unless you’re getting paid a couple thousand bucks to be put in a study to use it. — Senior Nevro ex-executive"

"We have both China-based and overseas sales teams in North America, and we expanded our business in North America through entering into sales representative contracts with 7 sales representative teams who will sell and promote our products in North America. In addition, the Company has established a factory in Vietnam in April 2024 and plans to open a sales office in the United States in early 2025 to further expand the market. — ZJK IPO prospectus"

""2021 has been the most successful selling season in our history, producing a record number of new clients and members" — David Schlanger, 3Q21 Transcript; "[in 2022, we] secured a record 105 new client commitments during the selling season representing an additional 1.2 million covered lives." — Peter Anevski, 3Q22 Transcript; "This year is, if you will [is] back to normal from an average client size perspective." — Peter Anevski, 3Q21 Transcript"

"We are upgrading shares of Plug to Buy (from Neutral) as the company passes an inflection point. We expect valuation to be driven by visibility for Plug continuing on impressive revenue growth trajectory, outlook for record revenue and EBITDA in 4Q19, and material EBITDA profitability in 2020. The outlook for 2020 where we forecast material EBITDA production of $35.5m suggests Plug is clearly passing an inflection point. — Sell-side analyst report"

"Pest control companies are getting 1-2 letters or communications a week from private equity buyers. It's getting people excited. There are some that are excited, and some that aren't. There are at least 7-8 private equity guys that are really good and know what they are doing. Private equity is changing the landscape. They are buying companies, and way overpaying for them, and will sell them to another PE firm or a strategic. — Industry Expert"

"The transaction is based on a cash consideration of USD 1.81 billion, which includes a tax benefit with a net present value of USD 200 million. The $200 million tax benefit comes from an election made by the seller as part of the transaction, resulting in amortizable goodwill for tax purposes, allowing us to reduce annually the amount of tax that WSP will have to pay in the future. — CFO Michaud, John Wood E&I Acquisition Call, June 1, 2022"

""We expect sales to be down by about 15," said one distributor that sells about $45m in electronic components annually. "This year the consumer products market is very poor. Huawei's orders are down, and that directly affects my customers and indirectly drags down our sales. ZTE's orders are also down. . . A lot of our customers sell to the U.S. The 2018 backlog is pretty intense, so this year's sales will drop." — China Market Distributor"

"“Yup. I’m right there with you. For me, I never understood Twist and Ginkgo. I never understood the two of them, who were in market pole position, if you will, had the hype and were the darlings of the synthetic biology community. I never understood either of their business models. I understood what they were selling. I didn’t understand how they were going to make money.” — Ex-senior executive of Gen9 and longtime expert in Twist’s space"

"I don't think there's any way that anyone can ensure retail sales, except to look at the evidence of how many people do we have who came back to Herbalife with a garage full of product and said, you know, "I've been duped into this, and here's my product. I can't sell this product. I'm not able to sell this product"? The evidence is to the contrary. The evidence is considerably to the contrary. — Charles Patterson, Herbalife Attorney"

""So again, I know that some are very anxious that we hold those shares. Others, very anxious that we sell those shares or swap those shares and so forth. We've got a very close handle on that, and it is our objective to be able to monetize those shares this year and. And to bring in another, at least, $1 billion into the company and into the cash flow of the company." — Peter Huntsman, Chairman, President & CEO, May 2018"

""So again, I know that some are very anxious that we hold those shares. Others, very anxious that we sell those shares or swap those shares and so forth. We've got a very close handle on that, and it is our objective to be able to monetize those shares this year and. And to bring in another, at least, $1 billion into the company and into the cash flow of the company." — Peter Huntsman, Chairman, President & CEO, May 2018"

"Yes. Evoqua was a customer. They're an OEM, they take and put things together and sell the package. So for example, they would buy Gould's pumps and put it into a package and deploy modular treatment packages. Yes, there was competitive overlap though fairly small in UV line to disinfect water like cryptosporidium. I think there will be revenue synergies, but they'll be harder than people think. — Former Xylem Executive"

"In a referral world, you should be doing a few things. You should be generating fewer leads because you're not convincing someone to fill out lots of forms. You're also not selling to multiple parties. And you're much clearer with the consumer. So we found a referral when we changed the call to action from contact agent to schedule a tour, leads volume went down, but conversion and efficiency went up. — Former Executive"

"So again, I know that some are very anxious that we hold those shares. Others, very anxious that we sell those shares or swap those shares and so forth. We've got a very close handle on that, and it is our objective to be able to monetize those shares this year and. And to bring in another, at least, $1 billion into the company and into the cash flow of the company. — Peter Huntsman, Chairman, President & CEO, May 2018"

"Armor Holdings Products LLC has agreed to pay the United States $30 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly manufacturing and selling defective Zylon bullet-proof vests — U.S. DOJ. Armor Holdings employed no scientists and relied on Honeywell for scientific expertise — UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL (case number: 1:2008cv00961) (Document 209; page 10)."

"I think a lot of clinics are beginning to explore that idea because that's essentially what Kindbody has started to do. They can go out and sell themselves directly to employers instead of going through the benefits manager, negotiating a deal with them rather than having the middle man. I think it's definitely being tested right now. — Endocrinologist at Leading Fertility Clinic, Spruce Point Interview, 11/29/22"

""So we’ve got Alex [Fala] who is our FO. He’s been with me for just on a year now and he’s stepping into the role as acting CEO to free myself up to go out and find that global CE that we’re looking for; who knows how to grow a business from that $20 million of revenue to over $100 million of revenue, and in quick order." — Vaughan Rowsell, Exit Interview: Vaughan Rowsell steps down as CEO of Vend, Idealog, 2016"

"We can calculate Terminal Value in two ways. First, we can calculate Terminal Value using the Perpetuity Growth Method. This method assumes that the company keeps operating and generates cash flow forever into the future. Second, we can calculate Terminal Value using the Terminal Multiple Method. This method assumes we sell the company to an acquirer at the end of our forecast period. — The Core Technicals Guide"

"Direct Sales Regulations: A direct selling company may not “have the fee-paying or commodities purchase serve[ ] as the conditions for becoming a sales promoter.” (Art. 14.) — Direct Sales Regulations; Pyramid Sales Regulations: An organization may constitute a pyramid scheme if it requires recruits “to pay a certain fee for obtaining the qualification for participation.” (Art. 2.) — Pyramid Sales Regulations"

""It's not going to be easy for food and beverage companies to satisfy investors' appetite for growth... These companies need to buy sales growth by gobbling up smaller businesses that sell the healthy foods shoppers increasingly want." — Bloomberg, 2/18/16; "The highly competitive nature of food and beverage M&A over the past few years led to those soaring valuations in the first place." — Food Dive, 7/25/16"

"On December 3, 2024, Robert Aarnes, our President, ADI, adopted a Rule 10b5-1 trading agreement, pursuant to which he may sell up to 47,000 shares of the Company’s common stock. The trading agreements is intended to satisfy the affirmative defense of Rule 10b5-1(c) under the Exchange Act. The duration of the trading agreement is from March 4, 2025 to December 31, 2025. — Resideo Technologies, Inc. (Form 4)"

""The FTC settlement is an acknowledgment that our business model is sound and underscores our confidence in our ability to move forward successfully, otherwise we would not have agreed to these terms." — Michael O. Johnson, chairman & CEO, Herbalife. "The terms of the settlement in no way change our business model as a direct selling company but simply build upon current procedures." — Michael O. Johnson"

"Es wird hierdurch gemäß § 40 Abs. 2 Satz 2 GmbHG bescheinigt, dass die geänderten Eintragungen in der Liste der Gesellschafter den Veränderungen entsprechen, an denen ich in meiner Eigenschaft als Notar mitgewirkt habe (UR. Nr. MS 236/2015 vom 4. November 2015) und die übrigen Eintragungen mit dem Inhalt der zuletzt im Handelsregister aufgenommenen Liste übereinstimmen. — Dr. Matthias Santelmann, Notar"

"As FMV of assets value goes up, politicians want to sell their assets for top dollar, but then the rate payers are stuffed with a bill that is ultimately high. The fatal flaw in FMV is through time the public gets frustrated with transactions that result in higher bills, and there is an incentive for the decision-makers to sell them regardless. So there’s this tension at play. — Former WTRG Executive"

""The real competition based on everything I know of the Columbia Presbyterian data, and I know James Guarrera, who is the lead investigator for that, is LifePort... TransMedics did this hard sell, push down your throat approach to the surgical community... people who would say I’m using LifePort just because it’s not TransMedics." — Transplant surgeon, Director of a leading academic transplant center"

"…as we look at emerging markets, we just have not gotten comfortable that the moats around the business are anywhere close to as good as the U.S. and the credit quality of the tenants who are willing to co-locate or to sell their assets in those markets, at least up until this point has not been, to us, has not had the right risk reward ratio there. — Jay Brown, CFO, SVP Crown Castle International"

"For AOL Time Warner, in the long run had they gotten AT&T Broadband, it would have been strategic brilliance. — Saul Hansell and Steve Lohr, The New York Times, December 21, 2001; For TWX, we believe this was a tough asset from which to part, given their already strong foothold in cable networks and Comedy Central's attractive demographic reach. — Jessica Reif Cohen, Merrill Lynch, April 22, 2003."

"“As an agent, Dianguan serves as the Jifen’s sales agent in selling Jifen’s advertising solutions to second tier advertising agents, the end advertisers are the customers of Jifen as they specifically select Qutoutiao to display its advertisement and the performance obligation of Jifen is to provide the underlying advertising display services. Dianguan collects advances from end” — Qutoutiao, Inc."

"Investments at August 31, 2018 of $180.3 million include the cash surrender value of insurance policies of $160.2 million, equity method investments of $14.9 million and cost method investments of $5.2 million. ... Cintas reached an agreement to sell a cost method investment to a third party. The anticipated gain on the sale will be recorded upon consummation of the sale. — Cintas SEC filings"

"All of our Point of Care laboratory and other non-imaging instruments and consumables are supplied by third parties, who typically own the product rights and supply the product to us under marketing and/or distribution agreements...A loss of, or disruption in, the supply of consumables we are selling to an installed base of instruments could substantially harm our business. — Heska 2020 10-K"

""Baker Hughes is a marriage that is not working. The people are not happy. They can't sell the C3 product. It's a nightmare for them to sell it. The culture of C3 is so different that they can't work together." — Former C3 employee; "Baker Hughes just invested and entered a JV with a company called Augury and they can do everything that C3 is currently doing for them." — Former C3 employee"

"“The nuance here is that Allied is required to mark to long term value, not mark to market.” — Sell side analyst from one of Allied’s underwriters. “We’re committed to transparency and full disclosure.” — Mr. Walton, May 16th conference call. “In today’s senior loan environment we are seeing sales as well as discounts that are clearly in the money.” — Mr. Walton, May 29th conference call."

"Compensation to China sales employees and service fees to China licensed business providers totaling $87.3 million $79.1 million and $70.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively, are included in selling, general and administrative expenses while distributor compensation for all other countries is included in royalty overrides. — Herbalife 2010 Form 10-K"

""But even without the growth of more MDI -- crude MDI, we're continuing to take the crude MDI that we're selling into the market...and moving that into our formulation and downstream system houses as aggressively as we can. And that will be the area of the business that we'll continue to see the growth in the margin expansion going forward." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, July 2017"

""[Dauman] took a short-term financial gain beginning in 2011 by selling kids TV hits including SpongeBob to Netflix. That now appears to have backfired by encouraging young viewers to abandon Nickelodeon and other ad-supported channels and go online where they can watch shows whenever they want, without ads." — www.deadline.com/2015/08/viacom-philippe-dauman-heir-apparent-1201493629"

"CFO Reagan: “You're thinking about the Health margins, we are now -- and we continue to believe that the Health margins, which were very strong in the quarter, continue to be sustainable.”; CEO Krone: “We were able to sell part of the business that really wasn't in our portfolio. Clearly, that would have been lower-margin for us.” — JPMorgan, Leidos Earnings First Look, Oct 29, 2019"

""This deal makes sense from a strategic standpoint for two reasons: 1) HelloSign seems like a positive complementary business product to sell; and, 2) The acquisition provides a potential opportunity to further expand enterprise sales and win more share of the customer wallet," Mark Mahaney, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a note to investors on Monday. — Mark Mahaney"

"During the year, our Mako installed base grew by 33% and exceeded another milestone with over 100 robots sold and installed in the fourth quarter. This growth continues to highlight the demand for our differentiated Mako robotic technology as well as our ongoing success selling and installing robots in major teaching institutions, ASCs and competitive accounts. — 2020 Conf Call"

"CEO Gerald Hassell: "It's part of our goals that if we get a 4%, 5% revenue growth in a range, we should be able to produce positive operating leverage" — CEO Gerald Hassell. CFO Todd Gibbons: "Our core fee business has been growing at about the 3% to 5% range...on the lower end of that, to generate positive operating leverage...is going to be challenging" — CFO Todd Gibbons."

"“if I were Waleed’s people, I’d be selling stock like mad” – “I think they know damn well” that they’re in trouble. Another surgeon: “they’re sort of riding a wave right now...the stock is way over-priced and that thing is going to fall because once these devices come in and NRP catches on, people will see....” — Prominent surgeon, director of a leading transplant center"

"“whether it was manipulative or not...all people, to a degree, are trying to sell something...”; “I did feel like they were overemphasizing the horror stories...in my experience, my current patients don't have that...”; “they told a lot of horror stories...the amount of mailings and things I've got... I don't remember the last time I got this much...” — Endocrinologists"

"I would say, it's hard to say, Liam. I mean, it will come down to what opportunities there are. We want to maximize value on for those -- for that stake. The lockup is until July 2. I don't think anyone should expect us out in the market selling these shares on July 3. We will work very closely with Bunge and Greg Heckman. He's running a great business. — Glencore CEO"

""By positioning ourselves as a "one-stop" environmental services provider, we plan to leverage our diverse service offerings to unlock potential cross-selling opportunities across our business lines. As we execute on our growth strategies, we will continue to leverage our scalable capabilities to manage costs and drive higher operating margins." — GFL Environmental"

"As one media consultant said, “It’s rather sad that AOL Time Warner couldn’t keep one of its most valuable brands in television like Comedy Central” — Media Consultant. “Companies like AOL are having to sell their best and most profitable assets in order to make a dent on the debt on their balance sheets. Nobody’s focusing on shareholder value.” — Bond Investor."

"The 70% Rule: In any given month, a Distributor must sell to retail customers and/or sell at wholesale to downline Distributors, at least 70% of the total value of Herbalife products they hold for resale, in order to qualify for TAB Team and to earn and receive Royalty Overrides and Production Bonus for that month's business. — Herbalife Sales & Marketing Plan."

"“Who wants to bring their family into a struggle to make it? Who wants to bring their family into an eventual deception?” — Stephan Gratziani, Current Chairman’s Club member. “[S]uccessful people in retailing in our business, it’s a very small percentage. . . . The majority of our people have a difficulty in selling products, in general.” — Stephan Gratziani."

"“Who wants to bring their family into a struggle to make it? Who wants to bring their family into an eventual deception?” — Stephan Gratziani, Current Chairman’s Club member. “[S]uccessful people in retailing in our business, it’s a very small percentage. . . . The majority of our people have a difficulty in selling products, in general.” — Stephan Gratziani."

""Who wants to bring their family into a struggle to make it? Who wants to bring their family into an eventual deception?" — Stephan Gratziani, Current Chairman’s Club member. "[S]uccessful people in retailing in our business, it’s a very small percentage. . . . The majority of our people have a difficulty in selling products, in general." — Stephan Gratziani."

"“Who wants to bring their family into a struggle to make it? Who wants to bring their family into an eventual deception?” — Stephan Gratziani, Current Chairman’s Club member; “[S]uccessful people in retailing in our business, it’s a very small percentage. . . . The majority of our people have a difficulty in selling products, in general.” — Stephan Gratziani"

""So we have a huge selling and service motion going on with Microsoft and -- our friends at Microsoft with their Azure Stack. And I think we've closed about -- in excess of a couple of hundred million dollars worth of business with them, and we have a very, very large pipeline that we're working.." — CEO Siebel, Wells Fargo Conf, Dec 2, 2021"

""Our operating leverage was up 245 basis points year-over-year..." — Todd Gibbons. "This is one of our real focuses, delivering positive operating leverage and improving the operating margins of our company...And so you can see over the last 12 months, the operating margin has in fact, improved by 78 bps across the firm" — Gerald Hassell."

"Management of the resource is the key and should be privatised and the farmers/harvesters allowed to sell to whom they like and DEC becomes the auditor - this would at least give local companies a chance to buy wood from numerous rather than one source giving more local, grass root working people much needed income. — David Brocklehurst"

""Systems. Implementing a system of Salesforce took us four attempts. It was really complicated with all the resellers and all the different ways our different products are sold. And we bought two companies, so how do we integrate licenses for all those things in Salesforce? We spent a ton of money and failed many times." — Dax Dasilva"

""Although the specific findings and conclusions of the Committee, as advised by its legal and forensic accounting professionals, remain privileged, the Company announced that the Committee has informed it that the Committee is satisfied that the vast majority of the short sellers' claims were baseless." — China Integrated Energy Inc."

"“Overstock sells lots of products today where installation and assembly make complete sense from a customer perspective that they should be included,” said Matt Ehrlichman, CEO of Porch.com. Customers expect installation services for everything from furniture to light fixtures, all of which are sold on Overstock’s online marketplace."

"We will also be very focused on achieving a better return on invested capital for our retail businesses, in effect, getting more from our existing assets. And we will refocus on our automotive business. This Company had its beginnings in that business, our two founders selling tires and servicing cars. — 2009 Annual Report (page 3)"

"Hao said that since China stocks have listed on the US stock exchange, there have been similar cases. He thinks that Muddy Waters short sells only after serious investigation, and does not make fictitious reports. Otherwise, the goodwill, which is accumulated over many years, would be destroyed. "But the truth needs" — HAO Junbo"