Callouts & quotes from 10,384+ activist slides

"“And apologies if you said this already I'm kind of multi-tasking a couple calls here, but can you comment on what Matrox did specifically in a quarter on growth and maybe where they're at year-to-date?” — Analyst Giordano. “So I think that I said earlier in the call that, we're happy with the machine vision progress we've made with the Matrox acquisition... So we're pretty happy with the progress overall, I think that we're excited about the machine vision business overall.” — CEO Burns"

""Nelson was quick to recognize that removing Snapple from a bureaucratic Quaker Oats culture would enable entrepreneurialism and innovation. The result was a dramatic sales turnaround and more than quadrupling of company value in just 3 years. And I experienced first-hand at Heinz [as a Director] how Nelson emerged from a hotly contested proxy battle to become an incredibly respected and valued Board member." — Mike Weinstein (CEO of Snapple from 1997-2000; Heinz Director from 2006-2013)"

"All of our foreign subsidiaries currently operate in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar and a significant portion of our consolidated cash balance is denominated in these foreign functional currencies, particularly at our U.K. subsidiary which operates in Pound Sterling. As a result, our cash and cash equivalents balances are subject to the effects of the fluctuations in these functional currencies against the U.S. Dollar at the end of each reporting period. — WD-40 2019 Annual Report"

"The implementation of the systems and processes will proceed on a staggered basis over a multi year period with the initial go-live rollout having occurred in 2010. We have implemented the Blue Ocean program in our Swiss and Chinese operations and now have approximately one-third of the program completed as measured in users. We expect to implement Germany and the United States over the next two years and will then have more than half of the Company's users on the system. — 10-K Feb 2012"

"2015年3月30日，华忆公司（甲方、出租方）与天河学而思（乙方、承租方）签订《天河购物中心租赁合同》两份（针对涉案物业的三层、四层各签订一份，除租赁标的物不一致外，其余条款均一致），约定甲方分别将坐落在甲方同意将涉案物业的三层、四层出租给乙方课外辅导和人力资源培训业务使用，建筑面积均为2344.82平方米（含分摊共用建筑面积）。租期8年，2015年4月1日至2015年5月31日为免租装修期。2015年6月1日至2016年3月31日，月租金额（含管理费及税）257930.2元，110元/平方米，年租金（含管理费及税）2579302元；2016年4月1日至2017年3月31日，月租金额（含管理费及税）257930.2元，110元/平方米，年租金（含管理费及税）3095162.4元。1、租金以合同年为结算周期，由乙方在每年3月5日前以银行转账到指定账户的方式缴付下一个合同年租金给甲方。逢法定假日顺延至假日的次日。2、应甲方资金分配需要，租金缴纳需分配至两个账户中，租金账户分配情况如 — Chinese Court Filing (2017) 粤 01 民终 18443 号."

""I know because of the NVIDIA connection. I have to tell you, they have flat revenues for the last three years – sounds a little like SoundHound. I'm going to take a pass on that one." — Jim Cramer. "While we appreciate the opportunity to be featured on Mad Money and understand the fast-paced nature of the program, ZJK has achieved more than 33% average annual growth over the past three years which is far from ‘flat’ by any financial metric, as Mr. Cramer suggested," — ZJK CEO Ning Ding."

"“Hi, Tim. Good morning. So the tax accruals comes and accounted the way our businesses structured. As I've shared in the past, we have a U.S. entity and we've got global operating subsidiaries, right. So the global operating subsidiaries, which are really this -- that do all the work for the parent company have to be compensated and the way we compensate them is on a cost-plus basis and that creates, that essentially results in the profit in the operating subsidiaries.” — Former INOD CFO"

"“So on the other hand, what I would also say, the major advantage of our new structure is that it gives us full transparency on where we stand with our profitability on a stand-alone basis for our businesses... And this, of course, got blurred in the past because people were looking at the integrated margin. This is over. We will look at stand-alone margins. And I think personally, this will be a very big lever to improve profitability.” — Thomas Toepfer, CFO of Covestro, September 2021"

"BRISTOL MEYERS SQUIBB employee #1: BMS originally funded BLI and championed it; one of their largest customers; now "not being used much"; a waste of money; scientists are skeptical and reluctant; no value proposition; onerous and unusable. — Bristol Myers Squibb Employee #1. BRISTOL MEYERS SQUIBB employee #2: Pitifully small TAM; already saturated; "very expensive doorstop" prone to "lot of false positives and negatives"; overpriced vs. alternatives. — Bristol Myers Squibb Employee #2."

"“a lot of [doctors] that don't know about the drug”; “I really haven't spoken to those others in the study...it's not something we typically do, but it's something I need to do now...most of the enthusiasm has come from the families about the drug...put it that way...they heard it from Prader-Willi Syndrome foundations...that's where they're hearing it from...they're hearing it basically from pro-drug positions.” — Division Chief for pediatric endocrinology at a major NE academic center"

"“the speakers that you’re talking about...they’re doing to give it to excessive daytime sleepiness patients because you can find a lot of those, and it’s an unclear diagnosis, and you can put them on it.” — Neurologist in New York with 70-80 narcolepsy patients. “I don’t know why there are 30 or 40 narcolepsy patients...in Flint, Michigan...no idea why...but she’s doing it, and she’s making a crap ton of money doing it.” — Ex-Harmony territory manager for several states in the Northeast"

"As our business grew rapidly and substantially, it made perfect sense to start building our own distribution capabilities, i.e., an in-house advertising platform. The benefit of owning an in-house advertising platform is not only enhanced monetization efficiency as we can improve advertising technology for better matching of supply and demand which results in higher average revenue per user ( ARPU ), it also allows our business to become independent and obtain long-term viability. — QTT"

"As the Tribunal has clearly stated, the dispute manifestly depends on questions of competition law, and private law rights cannot be relied on to give effect to an exclusive agreement which violates competition law. We welcome the fact that the Competition Appeal Tribunal's judgment has upheld Sportradar's submissions, and that the competition law claim will proceed to be determined first and in the specialist forum. — David Lampitt, managing director, Sports Partnerships at Sportradar"

""The determinant of whether the [Lightower] transaction is value-creative beyond the inherent tower/fiber multiple arbitrage will depend on the company's ability to replicate, if not surpass, the return profile of its macro business across its fiber footprint." — Barclays, July 2017; "Our ROIC trends are robust, even with our continuing investments in younger assets with significant long-term upside but lower initial tenancy and cash flow." — CFO Tom Bartlett, American Tower, July 2018"

"One-Stop Project Destination with Immediate Availability. We carry an extensive range of products, including flooring and decorative accessories, as well as installation materials and tools, to fulfill a customer's entire flooring project. In addition, we have adjacent categories such as vanities, bathroom accessories, shower doors, and custom countertops. Our stores carry a large in-stock assortment and job size quantities to differentiate us from our competitors. — Floor & Decor 10-K"

"“We are using very differently configured and engineered chips so that the chips are the most different, and then depending on the application for a workflow, they do have to change out optics, need a different objective, need different light sources... And then, the chips, we're quadrupling the number of pens or changing the geometries so that we can better trap cells or other reagent speeds and the like. Those are significantly different in many cases.” — Gingko Bioworks Executive #2"

"I think that the response was as good as could be expected from QIN and investors/speculators must now weigh up the merits of each argument. For me, I view QIN as a genuine business vs. a ponzi scheme, but one that is operating in a completely new sector (Sandalwood plantations) and thus with an elevated amount of risk that a well establish business in a mature sector. This, however, represents a potential increased reward too if QIN is ultimately successful. — HotCopper forum user JID"

"From Phillips 66's April 24 Letter: Elliott, who is compensating its purportedly independent nominees, denied Phillips 66 access to those nominees for interview and evaluation, despite multiple attempts from Phillips 66. In fact, one of Elliott's nominees told representatives of Phillips 66 that he was instructed not to engage directly and instead referred the Board to Elliott itself. Does this action further reveal an expectation of loyalty rather than true independence? — Phillips 66"

""The only way a correction takes place is to have household formation exceed new construction by a significant amount for a significant period of time. We've had it for quite a while. And when you see these figures of 500,000 or 600,000, that means we're sopping up housing inventory. And I don't know exactly when that hits equilibrium, but it isn't five years from now. I know that. And I think it actually could be reasonably soon." — Warren Buffett (July 8, 2011 Bloomberg TV interview)"

""Our growth in Florida and Puerto Rico alone has been exponential," said Kristen Helsel, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Pika. — Kristen Helsel; "Pika's systems have set the bar for excellence in the Puerto Rican energy storage market," said Juan C. Díaz-Galarza, Vice President of Operations at Dynamic Solar in Puerto Rico. — Juan C. Díaz-Galarza; "Individual Indicted And Arrested For Conspiracy Against The United States To Provide Kickbacks" — USDOJ, District of Puerto Rico"

"“My question is really on the sum of the parts discount in the stock... I think it's fair to say the most diversified refiner in the space, and you combine that with some stock underperformance over the past decade. So I guess I'm a little surprised that there's not more talk about potentially looking at selling some refineries or simplifying the business overall. And really, my question is just on how do you plan to monetize the sum of the parts discount?” — TPH&Co., November 9, 2022"

""We are definitely being stretched.... demand is definitely stretching our ability to supply. And we've not quite caught up with that demand curve yet." — Larry Blanford, GMCR CEO; "As we have continued to add portion pack production capacity in Q3, we were able to fulfill customer demand that had pent-up in the system over the prior two quarters." — Larry Blanford, GMCR CEO; "We continued to also experience spot outages of portion packs with our customers." — Larry Blanford, GMCR CEO"

""My question is really on the sum of the parts discount in the stock... I think it's fair to say the most diversified refiner in the space, and you combine that with some stock underperformance over the past decade. So I guess I'm a little surprised that there's not more talk about potentially looking at selling some refineries or simplifying the business overall. And really, my question is just on how do you plan to monetize the sum of the parts discount?" — TPH&Co., November 9, 2022"

"“You Want Snark With Those Fries? No One is Safe From Wendy’s Tweets” — Wall Street Journal (7/25/17); “Step Aside, Ellen DeGeneres: The New Retweet Champion Is a Nugget-Hungry Teenager” — New York Times (5/9/17); “Since we changed our tone of voice, we’ve seen a number of new consumers following us, said Wendy’s Chief Marketing Officer Kurt Kane... Social-media watchers can’t point to any [company] that challenge competitors and consumers as much as Wendy’s” — Kurt Kane, Wendy's CMO."

"So, we have, as of FY2012, spent S$4.4 billion. And based on the investments committed, an additional S$1.7 billion will be spend over the next 18 to 24 months to complete these initiatives. — Shekhar Anantharaman, Q4 2012 Call; So, as far as the total CapEx is concerned, we had given you at the end of the full-year results briefing that we'll need about S$1.7 billion in the next 12 months. I think FY2013 plus probably another six months of FY2014. — Shekhar Anantharaman, Q1 2013 Call"

""It's inefficient to take a slide or sample and drop in an envelope and have somebody drive a car to pick it up, drive the car to the airport, drop it into a box, put it on an airplane, fly to Los Angeles or New York and drive it from the airport to a Central Lab and then have it looked at. We think that's -- it's not green, it's not efficient and we think technology can make the experience better for the pet, the pet owner and the veterinarians." — Kevin Wilson, Q4 2020 Earnings Call"

""I am very impressed with both the promise and simplicity of Paragon’s growth strategy," said Steve Croskrey. "The residential mortgage industry is huge and extremely fragmented, and I am looking forward to assisting Paragon’s management team in their plan to maximize shareholder value. My experience with Armor Holdings should help to execute a disciplined acquisition program that ensures all of our subsidiary companies are effectively integrated into a single operating entity." — SEC"

""My question is really on the sum of the parts discount in the stock... I think it's fair to say the most diversified refiner in the space, and you combine that with some stock underperformance over the past decade. So I guess I'm a little surprised that there's not more talk about potentially looking at selling some refineries or simplifying the business overall. And really, my question is just on how do you plan to monetize the sum of the parts discount?" — TPH&Co., November 9, 2022"

"The Company stated that: "Ending Q1 2011, there were 401 Patches above $2,000 per month in revenue..." We arrived at our cost estimates for Patch of $160 million in 2011 based on the following statement by the Company's Chief Financial Officer at the AOL Investor Day on June 16, 2011: "...we're going to spend $160 million a year this year on Patch..." Further, in a research report published on May 10, 2012, Barclays estimated that Patch generated EBITDA losses of $151 million in 2011."

"As of December 31, 2023 and 2022, property, equipment, and software, net located in the United States was $17.0 million and $13.7 million, respectively. The remainder was located in the Company's various international locations. Included in property, equipment, and software are the capitalized costs of software development. Software development costs capitalized during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 were $6.4 million and $4.5 million, respectively. — ENFN 2023 10-K, Note 4"

"“The KLA Xenon works. The Ushio tin source failed. ASML is different. They're using tin and they're using IR laser to ignite it. That's ASML. The KLA technology is published, It uses a frozen Xenon gas with IR laser as the originator. Ushio uses molten tin like ASML, but instead of using IR, they're using discharge electrodes, which is terrible. And the concept of maintaining two propellers creates a mess.” — Former KLA executive in a leadership role in their EUV mask inspection group"

"“The KLA Xenon works. The Ushio tin source failed. ASML is different. They're using tin and they're using IR laser to ignite it. That's ASML. The KLA technology is published, It uses a frozen Xenon gas with IR laser as the originator. Ushio uses molten tin like ASML, but instead of using IR, they're using discharge electrodes, which is terrible. And the concept of maintaining two propellers creates a mess.” — Former KLA executive in a leadership role in their EUV mask inspection group"

"“The KLA Xenon works. The Ushio tin source failed. ASML is different. They're using tin and they're using IR laser to ignite it. That's ASML. The KLA technology is published, It uses a frozen Xenon gas with IR laser as the originator. Ushio uses molten tin like ASML, but instead of using IR, they're using discharge electrodes, which is terrible. And the concept of maintaining two propellers creates a mess.” — Former KLA executive in a leadership role in their EUV mask inspection group"

"the Audit Committee and the Board have determined that it would be in the best interests of the Company to make changes in the leadership for the oversight and control of its financial operations to correct the "tone at the top" and ensure it is consistent with the Board's commitment to maintaining strong corporate governance. The Company will enhance the accounting organization, both by adding personnel to that function and by increasing training for all members of the organization."

""Under CEO Mike Hennigan, MPC has shown the most visible improvement among their peers over the past three years in both reliability, unit cost and profitability." — Scotiabank, June 30, 2023; "Marathon has been our top refining pick since initiating on the group in June 2022. Shares have led peers, driven by cost/commercial improvements and peer (and energy sector) leading capital returns, funded by strong refining margins and Speedway divestiture proceeds." — BMO, November 30, 2023"

"“Especially the vice president of regulatory, she was hired, but she was more, to speak, an ornament because she worked at the FDA before. So, you know, to be able to say on their website that so-and-so used to be at the FDA. But she was never in the office. She may be close to 70 years old, but maybe they were just using her name. She was not really involved with anything. She had never been in Boston. She was living in Washington, DC.” — Former employee in a regulatory affairs role"

"“…with Marcato establishing a 6% position in the stock, we think it is likely that 1) management will be under pressure to realize a more meaningful portion of the cost savings to EPS versus potential reinvestment 2) initiates a dialogue around the strategic value of DECK's non-core brands in its portfolio including potential alternatives 3) creates a greater sense of urgency around shareholder value enhancing initiatives including accelerated share repurchases.” — Buckingham 3/3/17"

"“Definitely...I heard a lot of complaints about how TransMedics is trying to take over the case; TransMedics is trying to take over the organ allocation; TransMedics is just pushing, and they’re rubbing people the wrong way...the OPOs, the one in Los Angeles, in particular, was starting to refuse to do that...OPOs were looking at a way to retaliate or somewhat to put some pressure onto TransMedics. You can see that relationship is already under a lot of strain.” — Transplant surgeon"

"“Waleed literally stood up and said, ‘Who are you and why do you think you can sit at my table?’ It was very upsetting and insulting” — Former executive in a key reimbursement role; “Waleed is very short-tempered. He screamed at people a lot and he could be pretty unprofessional...there was a running joke that whenever a customer is asking too many questions...he’d be like, ‘Oh my God, such and such idiots.’” — Former longtime employee in senior medical safety/clinical safety roles."

""It depends on the asset, but most of those would be carried at original cost." — Mr. Walton (May 29th conference call); "We write loans down to the amount that we believe we will collect. We record unrealized depreciation to show shareholders what we think has been lost." — Mr. Walton (May 29th conference call); "There is no time limit on our investments...we could keep them at some level of value as long as something is being done to try and recover the investment." — Ms. Sparrow"

"CCME Rep: The situation is just what I’ve told you. Say for example we have 1,000 vehicles, 1,000 is the number we quote to outsider. But I have only quoted 500 vehicles to you, because these 500 vehicles are already signed with contracts and installed with devices. The other 500 vehicles don’t have devices installed, so the number I quoted to you is the actual number, installed with devices, but our company has asked us to claim based on 1,000 vehicles. — CCME Sales Representative"

"Volkswagen has become the largest shareholder of QuantumScape. Our US$100 million investment is a key building block in the Group’s battery strategy. One of the long-term targets is to establish a production line for solid-state batteries by 2025. — Herbert Diess, Volkswagen AG CEO; The Volkswagen Group has established a joint venture with QuantumScape, a manufacturer of solid-state batteries. The shared goal of the companies is large-scale production... — Oliver Blume, Porsche CEO"

""live cam site for sex and this is something it cannot wash off" — Agent Interview #2. "Lastly, mobile marketing business bottomed out in the fourth quarter, both the effective CPM and the number of that in question sold increased meaningfully from the third quarter. While we think there is still potential in driving further growth in eCPMs and increasing the ad world. We won’t get aggressive in doing so as the focus in 2018 is on building user engagement." — Q4 ‘2017 Earnings Call"

"“The subject of the anticipatory mandatory takeover offer published on 12 January 2022 of CPIPG relates to the acquisition of all outstanding ordinary shares (Stammaktien) of IMMOFINANZ admitted to trading on (i) the Vienna Stock Exchange (Wiener Börse), Official Market (Amtlicher Handel) (Prime Market), and (ii) the Warsaw Stock Exchange, Main Market, which are not held by the Bidder or WXZ1 as Party Acting in Concert with the Bidder.” — Deloitte-issued “Independent Expert Report”"

"“I feel like they fly for almost everything, but most of the time, the surgeon is not local, and the perfusionist isn't local, and that may be something that we’re trying to change for us where if the donor’s just down the street from us but you have to bring in a surgeon from California to do the donor and the perfusionist is from wherever, that’s what seems to happen....since they’ve gotten their own jets, everybody just flies in their own jets.” — Transplant surgeon, Utah center"

"“Why should it cost $70,000-80,000 for disposables? The disposables are essentially plastic tubings and plastic containers and cartridges, and that's more than the cost of a brand-new luxury car that you're paying for a set of things you throw in the garbage, essentially. It is, no question, overpriced...there’s lots of precedence for this sort of stuff happening in the healthcare industry.” — Transplant surgeon and transplant program director at a leading Northeast academic center"

"“We will improve gross margin by optimizing our data center footprint, public cloud infrastructure and the cost to serve our customers. In addition to the data center migration that we've discussed over the past year, we'll be driving efficiencies in various aspects of delivering our service such as storage, search and conversion. We also expect more of our business to come from add-on products, which will naturally drive higher margins.” — CFO Dylan Smith, Q3 FY2020 Earnings Call"

"Vehicles need to homologated in each and every single market, and there are so many questions also when it comes to the lifetime and other aspects of solid state batteries. We have no clue how solid state technology behaves in extreme temperatures, in crash situations, over a longer period of time, and this needs to be tested and evaluated. This foundation will take at least five more years, and then production needs to be planned, ramp-up, the facilities, and so on. — VW employee"

"“I arrived at Siemens at a very difficult moment... Siemens needed to execute more rapidly, and to do that we had to take a hard look at both our organizational structure and whether we had the right people in the right jobs. Within months of my taking over, we replaced about 80% of the top level of executives, 70% of the next level down, and 40% of the level below that.” — Peter Löscher, The CEO of Siemens on Using a Scandal to Drive Change, Harvard Business Review, November 2012"

""[O]ne of the things about Alcoa Corp. that is fundamentally different than Alcoa Inc. is that we were given the opportunity to come out with a much better governance structure. So as a new company, we separated the Chairman and the CEO role. I personally believe that's the right way to have the business set up.... In addition to that, we've decided to incorporate in Delaware.... Delaware is much more shareholder-friendly." — William F. Oplinger, CFO Alcoa Corp., November 16, 2016"

"Bigo is a fast-growing global tech company. Headquartered in Singapore, Bigo owns BIGO LIVE, a leading global live streaming platform excluding China, LIKE, a leading short form video social platform worldwide, and other social apps. Bigo has created a video-based online community for global young generation users. It has established footprints in South-Eastern Asia, Southern Asia, the Middle East and America, paving the way for further global expansion. — Press release, June 2018"

"Additionally, in January 2023, our compensation committee considered our equity award program and determined that, for FY 2024, shifting our standard equity vesting schedule from four to three years, and proportionately reducing the associated annual target, would better suit our compensation needs. These changes will help us manage equity dilution while still offering a meaningful opportunity for reward predicated on creating long-term stockholder value. — Samsara Proxy Statement"

""China is 1.3 billion people, you can recruit for a long time there before we had what was called the classic ‘pop-and-drop’ in that marketplace. So we're trying to build in right away a retailing base into that marketplace. I would say initially there is going to be a lot of recruiting, a lot of business opportunity development... I think our opportunity is tremendous in that marketplace for local product development, for some very creative ideas." - Michael Johnson (August 2008)"

"“Nelson Peltz and Trian have played an important role in Wendy’s brand transformation and financial improvement. I greatly value the thought leadership and strategic insight that Nelson and the Trian team provide. Nelson and Trian are passionate advocates for the brand’s growth and success. We work collaboratively on key strategic decisions and our company benefits from Trian’s insight on financial and global opportunities.” —Emil J. Brolick, President and CEO, The Wendy’s Company"

"“Our resources that are working at customer sites, the feedback is actually very on-point. The biggest thing that they're seeing is that Berkeley Lights is still the old system. They haven't really evolved the technology stack, and the data that is coming is not very user-friendly. There is no innovation. It's completely outdated. The user interfaces, the way they see the data, how they're collecting it, and that's where the errors are coming from being on-prem.” — IQVIA executive"

"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 sales executive"

"September 12th, 2022: We are currently switching from PVT: production validation tests to ramp and mass production... We believe that having a maiden USA factory up and running at mass production is a strategic advantage... November 29th, 2022: We're reporting here live from the Teal factory... We are about to start being able to ship over the next 4 to 6 weeks... March 7th, 2023: The Salt Lake City factory is complete and ready to go. We now have a state-of-the-art drone factory."

"The United States has significant concerns with the planned rule changes under the Proposed Settlement. Evidence from other multiple listing services suggests that merely tweaking a buyer-broker commission rule to allow zero-percent commissions does little to “unfetter a market from anti-competitive conduct and ‘pry open to competition a market that has been closed by defendants’ illegal restraints.’” — DOJ Statement of Interest in Nosalek v. MLS Property Information Network, Inc."

"Overall, the sensitivity of smart devices for atrial fibrillation detection is remarkably high. A recent meta-analysis found that smartphones detected atrial fibrillation with a sensitivity of 94% and a specificity of 96%, and there was no difference in atrial fibrillation detection between devices that use PPG and single-lead ECG. — Excerpts from "Consumer-grade wearable cardiac monitors: What they do well, and what needs work", Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, January 2024"

""A second factory should open in Utah before the end of the year, Messersmith said, though the timeline for completion and beginning production was slowed down significantly by the coronavirus pandemic." — Fooddive.com, Nov 16, 2020. "I think Utah is the wrong place and location... I know they spent too much. The original budget was $50 million. With a year and a half delay and costs increases related to COIVD, I heard they are close to $100 million." — Former Oatly U.S. Manager."