Callouts & quotes from 10,384+ activist slides

"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"

"3. If a plan purports to sell a product or service, check to see whether its price is inflated, whether new members must buy costly inventory, or whether members make most “sales” to other members rather than the general public. If any of these conditions exist, the purported “sale” of the product or service may just mask a pyramid scheme that promotes an endless chain of recruiting and inventory loading. — Debra A. Valentine, General Counsel for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission"

"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"

"Yeah, when we -- our thoughts on working capital are when we are growing, we're going to use some working capital. So for example, if we're growing the way we want to grow. Accounts receivable is going to grow. Inventories are going to grow, in-service inventory is going to grow because we are injecting new inventory into new customers and penetrated customers. So generally speaking, we expect in a growth environment, we expect to use working capital. — CFO, Q1 2020 Earnings Call"

"the leader was a German doctor...he was not able to continue medical practice in Germany and then went to China...he was saying he was trying to be a pioneer of transplants at this Chinese hospital....I mean, the way he spoke...somewhere between Wuhan and Beijing...when the Chinese doctors disappeared, we felt kind of easy because we didn't want to do anything illegal...exporting to any country illegally could shut down the business. — Former employee in a regulatory affairs role"

"The sales rep was also kind of a little bit concerned and said, geez, we know it can do this, but one of the things he said was, not in very healthy people, it's usually people who have some other issues going on, but we know it can cause this. So, that was kind of it, and he just kind of said, well, obviously, even if we don't know for sure, that this is what caused it, and I'm hoping the patient is off of the medicine. — Neurologist at a large hospital system in a Midwest state"

"The sales rep was also kind of a little bit concerned and said, geez, we know it can do this, but one of the things he said was, not in very healthy people, it's usually people who have some other issues going on, but we know it can cause this. So, that was kind of it, and he just kind of said, well, obviously, even if we don't know for sure, that this is what caused it, and I'm hoping the patient is off of the medicine. — Neurologist at a large hospital system in a Midwest state"

""Yes, they did. The reason being like they were kind of in the head-to-head [competition with] KeepTruckin [nka Motive]. And the idea is it's a land grab where we don't want people to be able to say they have 20,000 customers, and we only have 5,000 customers...I don't know that Samsara have really thought about, okay, like this is the cost like when do we recoup the cost of buying, I don't think they did that math." — Former Samsara Enterprise Executive, Tegus Interview 7/21/23"

""We have a series of Vice Presidents who have sat right in front of Kathryn and I and stared us in the eyeballs and told us how they're going to deliver the types of improvements that Brock referred to. And because of that level of attack, level of effort, and that level of commitment, we're able to sit here today and say that we've got a program [Execution Excellence for Efficiency or “E3”] that over the next couple of years, is another C$100 million." — Fred Green, Analyst Day"

"Under CEO Mike Hennigan, MPC has shown the most visible improvement among their peers over the past 3 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"

""[TWC's] strength as the second largest US cable system operator, with strong operating trends, healthy liquidity and strengthening credit metrics." — Moody's. "the cable TV business is gaining subscriber units with its digital video and high-speed data services. Capital needs of this business should remain relatively stable, but video programming costs and new-service rollout costs are likely to hamper meaningful improvement in OIBDA margins over at least the near term." — S&P."

"Under CEO Mike Hennigan, MPC has shown the most visible improvement among their peers over the past 3 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"

""Happy they got to orbit on last launch a few weeks ago, that's great, but there's just a lot of issues with their rocket and their business model...claims of launching every day? It's pretty exciting when a launch provider can launch once a month – and sure, everyone would love for rockets to be like airplanes – that's not going to happen for at least another decade. So yes, I have some serious concerns about Astra's claims." — Mission Manager for a broadband mega-constellation"

"“insulin resistance should be improving...I’m just really surprised they haven’t reported either the HOMA-B, the insulin production rate and the insulin resistance...I don’t know why they haven’t...I would like to have seen some effect in insulin resistance....they just didn’t report those...that was very odd to me...are they hiding something...it’s really weird....it’s such an obvious thing...that’s very odd...I don’t quite know what was going on there.” — Trial investigator #4"

""well, one [patient]...and I wouldn't call it a wow response." — Trial investigator, pediatrician/geneticist, professor. "the other geneticists who are in town are, I think, very unlikely to go prescribing on their own. They're probably going to ask me to do it." — Trial investigator, pediatrician/geneticist, professor. "not going to be helpful at all to the families who don't have the ability to control the environment." — Trial investigator, pediatrician/geneticist, professor."

"Our third quarter results were shaped by ongoing challenges associated with weaker demand than forecasted, downstream destocking above what we expected, and heightened competitive dynamics in both the TiO2 and zircon markets. While a competitor's insolvency proceedings are expected to benefit Tronox's future sales volumes, we saw a temporary headwind in the third quarter with more aggressive liquidation of inventory at below-market pricing. — Chief Executive Officer John Romano"

"One factor that complicates discussions about valuations [...] the governance issues that arise from the situation [...] the company's largest customer is its largest shareholder, and the company lacks incentives to maximise profits. — UBS, April 26, 2022; A probe by an independent investigation panel revealed that Toyota Industries had cheated on certification tests [...] The string of revelations has raised questions about [...] oversight [...] — Nikkei Asia, January 29, 2024"

"In 2008 NORI was a subsidiary of Nautilus Minerals Inc. ("Nautilus"). Since that time Nautilus has sold all of its ownership and interest in NORI. NORI is now wholly owned by the Nauru Education and Training Foundation and the Nauru Health and Environment Foundation; two Nauruan foundations which own NORI in equal shares. As such, NORI is no longer affiliated with Nautilus or any other entity or person outside of Nauru. — NORI Exploration License Application dated July 21, 2011"

""We're always searching out innovative ways to keep drivers safe. That's why we have partnered with Netradyne to help make improvements to the driver experience," Haraldsdottir [Amazon's senior manager for last-mile safety] says on camera. She describes Netradyne as the first company to merge AI with video "to create industry-leading safety systems, reducing collisions by a third through in-cab warnings and another third through improving driver behaviors." — Amazon / The Verge"

"We expect to earn a full year 2021 adjusted EBITDA margin of 23.7 percentage to 24.1 percentage. The above outlook includes our anticipation that our troughs of service as a percentage of revenues will remain roughly flat. We also expect to incur full quarter public company costs and a small increase to operating expenses as we increase our investments in our digital and innovation capabilities. And prepare for our teammates to return to the office. — CFO Sekar, Q2'21 Conf Call"

""A lot of Show on the Outside. A whole lot of Nothing inside." — Current Employee, Engineer in San Jose, CA. "Jack of all trades, master of none technology with arrogant leaders." — Engineer in Nashville, TN. "Sinking ship" — Former Employee. "Toxic" — Former Employee, Software Engineer. "Stay away if you can" — Former Employee, Software Engineer. "Stay away from this mess" — Current Employee, SDR in San Jose, CA. "Stay away. Seriously" — Former Employee, Sales in San Jose, CA."

"“Basic PK – since the half-life of Pitolisant is approximately 20 hours about half the drug levels will be circulating when the 2nd dose is administered so this is added to the new peak plasma levels on Day 2, and again on day 3, day 4 etc., until steady state plasma levels are reached... Thus, the QTcT study is intentionally misleading, and the statements made about safety margins are therefore overestimated and incorrect.” — Pharmacology consultant engaged by Scorpion Capital"

"“Starting in or about March, 2013, Rogers solicited investors for ADOMANI in which he was a shareholder. For each ADOMANI stock purchase attributed to Rogers’ efforts, ADOMANI issued a matching number of shares to SOC. During the period of March 2013 through May 2013, Rogers, working in concert or participation with his local associates, induced at least 20 additional California residents to purchase over $200,000.00 in stock from SOC and/or ADOMANI.” — Desist and Refrain Order"

"“at the early stage of their product, they had big trouble with the light source”; “they were struggling” because of the short lifespan “and then it needed replacement and after replacement they needed one month to tune the light source...so the tool was only available for maybe 60% or 70%...customers needed to buy more equipment than they originally planned to cover their requirements.” — Longtime, senior semicap equipment executive in Japan who is friendly with Lasertec’s CEO"

"So going back to the convertible debt offering, we executed that as we saw it in a very opportunistic time to bolster our balance sheet through that offering, given the market environment and terms. So we're able to achieve a combination of a 0% coupon rate with no covenants. It's a flexible way to fund our future needs at a relatively low cost...the overall orientation is around going after the market opportunity and delivering shareholder value. — CFO Dylan Smith, March 2021"

""This is a strange and irregular transaction that is simply not comparable to any other transaction I have seen in over 45 years of observing the 'merger and acquisition' marketplace. A CEO of the target [Xerox], facing likely ouster, serves as the loyal agent of the acquirer, designing a deal that is too good to be true: a cheap price, little governance protections, no market check, and a process that ignores other bidders." — John C. Coffee Jr., Columbia Law School professor"

"The company benefits from a seller's loan on the acquisition of building I in the amount of €4 million with interest of 3.39% per year payable quarterly in arrears. The latter will be reimbursable no later than July 8, 2018 in one installment. The vendor credit has been left in the supplier account and the interest not yet paid has been recorded in the “supplier, accrued interest” account.” — Les Mas du Figuier SAS (France) auditor's report on the annual accounts, Dec 31, 2013"

"We have also made contributions to the UCLA Lab. We have invested in this lab since 2002 with total donations of approximately $1.5 million which includes donations of lab equipment and software. UCLA agreed that the donations would be used for further research and education in the fields of weight management and botanical dietary supplements. In addition, we have made donations from time to time to UCLA to fund research and educational programs. — Herbalife 2011 Annual Report"

"We expect Demand Manager revenue to exceed $5 million in 2020. — MGNI CEO, Q4 2019; From a revenue side, I think we're not formally updating our guidance. But we -- there's a big enough hole here that we don't expect to hit those levels this year. — MGNI CFO, Q2 2020; We thought that it was going to be long sales cycle to begin with or a long path to maturation for Demand Manager. Think about it, we're competing against the free product. — MGNI CEO, Stephens Conf, Nov 19, 2020"

"While our termite business has been growing by double digits for several years in a row now, termite damage claims as well as any related to litigation have declined year-by-year reaching our lowest level in recent history during 2021. To be more specific, termite damage claims received have declined from a high of 9,349 to the low of 380 new claims received this past year, while at the same time, revenue from termite has tripled. — Wilson, Vice Chairman, Q4 2021, Jan 26, 2022"

""With the trials, you always make money. For the implanted device, it really depends on which payer... If a trial is done somewhere else and we do the implanting, the hospital will lose money, so there are a lot of situations like that." — KOL; "I get patients for implants that, quite frankly, shouldn't be implanted... What they're doing is, 'I'll do the trial and make money in my surgery center. I don't want to do the implant because I'm not going to make money on it.'" — KOL"

"“...America’s riff on Australian barbecue has gained extraordinary cachet in Brazil — a love affair that is only deepening. For five years running, the chain has been voted Rio de Janeiro’s most popular restaurant.” — The Washington Post. “[T]he chain has become a cultural touchstone for many Brazilians, more experience than meal, where people can indulge decadence and celebrate life’s biggest milestones. A birthday. A job promotion. Even an engagement.” — The Washington Post"

""Insurance regulation is also more likely to see a stream of future premiums as a source of loss-absorbing capacity, and hence looks to be sure that pricing is sufficient to cover losses under all but the most catastrophic scenarios. In MBA’s proposal, with the Guarantors having only a minimal investment portfolio holding assets of short duration, insurance regulatory concepts may become more applicable than bank regulatory concepts." — Mortgage Bankers Association, 4/20/2017"

""Sometimes data integrity was compromised—it was difficult to figure it out immediately. It was only when you were looking at the data after the experiment had been run that you would realize something maybe had not been acquired correctly or something like that. The software was occasionally buggy, but mostly maybe there was some kind of conflict in the way that the data was acquired that might have affected the quality of the data that was coming out." — Former BLI employee"

"Third, the transaction structure will result in the stock being listed on two major global exchanges, the NYSE and the ASX. And through these listings, we expect there will be greater liquidity for investors as the market capitalisation of the combined company, which we estimate at US$17 billion, is expected to qualify for inclusion in the US S&P500 index, while the Australian listed shares will also continue to be included in the ASX 200 index. — CEO Dalia Deal Call Aug 2018"

"“Today, we believe that we have the best pipeline in our history.” — Dr. Bourla, October 30, 2018; “At the same time, we have likely the best pipeline we've ever had at the corporation.” — Dr. Bourla, January 3, 2019; “what we believe is the best pipeline in our history” — Dr. Bourla, January 29, 2019; “the best pipeline we ever had” — Dr. Bourla, January 14, 2020; “the best pipeline we ever had and one of the best, I believe, in the industry.” — Dr. Bourla, January 28, 2020."

"Our major competitors in most geographic locations in North America are Antech Diagnostics, a unit of VCA Inc., a division of Mars, Incorporated; Zoetis Inc. (including its wholly-owned subsidiary Abaxis, Inc.); Heska Corporation; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., and FUJIFILM North America Corporation. We also compete in certain international markets with Zoetis, FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation, Samsung Electronics, Arkray, Inc., Heska, Mindray and BioNote, Inc. — IDEXX 2020 10-K"

""Insurance regulation is also more likely to see a stream of future premiums as a source of loss-absorbing capacity, and hence looks to be sure that pricing is sufficient to cover losses under all but the most catastrophic scenarios. In MBA’s proposal, with the Guarantors having only a minimal investment portfolio holding assets of short duration, insurance regulatory concepts may become more applicable than bank regulatory concepts." — Mortgage Bankers Association, 4/20/2017"

"“I was asked to consistently phrase stuff differently, especially safety. I had meetings with Waleed on multiple occasions when he said I don’t like what you wrote here because it’s finger-pointing. Why don’t we just try to rephrase it? It went through cycles and cycles of editing until he was satisfied... When I was writing my narrative, he’d be like, well, you need to write here that this death is not device-related.” — Former employee in medical safety and clinical affairs"

"We believe the spin-off, which is the result of an in-depth review of strategic alternatives by our Board and management, will allow both companies to enhance value by allocating capital and deploying resources in a more focused way, while preserving and increasing synergies within their businesses. At the same time, it will position the new security company to build scale and make the necessary investments for the future. — Michael W. Lamach, IR Chairman & CEO, Dec. 10, 2012"

"“Everybody wasn't running out saying we're going to prescribe it. I think it was mixed. Whether it was manipulative or not — I can't speak to her motivations... I did feel like they were overemphasizing the horror stories... they told a lot of horror stories, and not that horror stories don't happen. As far as the rollout — the amount of mailings and things I've got...I don't remember the last time I got this much....” — Pediatric endocrinologist at a Delaware academic center"

"All of the other companies that I’ve worked for were all EMR. You went through electronic medical records. This thing is like a fax, a piece of paper, which was really odd that it didn’t go through a computer. ... saying no, we want everything to go through a fax machine, not electronically through a computer, was a little odd to me. And I asked that question to a lot of people, and nobody could ever explain that to me. — Ex-Harmony territory manager for a large Midwest state"

""I have been playing this game for a while and was rating it 5/5 at the beginning but it became really unfair for those who do not want to pay... Too big of a difference in gifts between those who pay for the season pass and the others (before that, we still had a bonus at each level, then it went down to 1 bonus every 3 levels and now 1 bonus every 6 levels...) Moreover, XP points aren't calculated based on the ranking anymore, it's lame" — Salomé Destal (Google Play Review)"

"“The x-axis is in seconds. So they're pulsing. The current density they're applying - the charging or discharging - each cycle only lasted for 10 seconds. This is ridiculous. I've never seen people reporting data in this way. This is a huge problem. The x-axis is in seconds, not even minutes. I mean, what kind of battery application uses pulsing for a few seconds? When you operate devices, you are drawing on constant current for a long time.” — Solid-state battery researcher"

"“It turns out, the secret sauce is really more about platform-as-a-service, rather than AI per se, which is funny, given that machine learning, a form of AI, is mentioned fifty-five times in the C3 prospectus, while platform is mentioned only once, in the company's self-description: 'We believe the C3 AI Suite is the only end-to-end Platform-as-a-Service allowing customers to design, develop, provision, and operate Enterprise AI applications at scale.'” — Tiernan Ray, ZD Net"

"Really? Interesting. I hadn't noticed that. You have to understand how the revenue is being generated. Since there's a packaged offering, you may see there is a price negotiation. There could be situations where the programmatic revenue might be shifting from pre to post. The growth might be slowing but being shifted around. I believe the margins from the programmatic partnerships are higher, I would say so, yes. — Spruce Point Interview On The Cease of Disclosure April 2023"

"High NA (0.55NA) EUVL Scanners are in development for future nodes of device manufacturing, with new requirements for source performance and geometry. Our customers have all engaged in this program, some calling it the most important next step in lithography. In this paper we discuss our progress on the source integration, de-risking and acceptance testing for High NA. — Karl Umstadter, Matthew Graham, Michael Purvis, Alex Schafgans, Jayson Stewart, Peter Mayer, Daniel Brown"

"“Stationary oxygen concentrator markets will grow as people buy more portable oxygen concentrators and need stationary units to compliment the realize the value of mobile supplemental oxygen for almost any medical condition. The casinos have realized the value of oxygen for their clients, and believe that this helps people feel better.” — WinterGreen Research, “Stationary Medical Oxygen Concentrators: Market shares, Market strategies, and Market Forecasts, 2017 to 2023” p103"

"August 25, 2022: The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Granite Construction, Incorporated and its former Senior Vice President, Dale Swanberg, with fraud for inflating the financial performance of the major subdivision Swanberg managed. In 2021, Granite restated its financial statements from 2017 through 2019 to correct revenue and profit margin errors allegedly caused by Swanberg's misconduct. The company agreed to pay $12 million to settle the SEC's charges."

"I suspect I would have concerns about trying to swallow a tablet...yeah, I'm just thinking that's not going to work. The bottom line is this is going to be a challenge, and an oral solution or even an injection would be preferable to a daily pill of this size that has to be taken whole. That is a factor that's going to reduce the immediate applicability... that might substantially limit the second prescription. — Endocrinologist; academic and community hospital affiliations."

"“Some things died at the coin cell stage. I'm sure you're familiar with this: as you increase the area, it increases the likelihood of failure. If you scale up to a pouch cell level, your barriers get exacerbated because there's just more area that could be potential failures. And a lot of the failures for these types of batteries are dendrites. It just takes one dendrite to fail a cell. So, if you have more area, you have more probability of failure.” — Former R&D employee"

"The errors and certain irregularities primarily related to the timing of recognition of (i) revenue, (ii) expenses related to certain inventory used for engineering and marketing purposes and (iii) expenses related to defective products under warranty not returned by customers. Additionally, errors were identified whereby the Company had derecognized inventory while control over such inventory was retained because the Company was obligated to buy it back. — SMCI SEC filings"

"The Company did not maintain adequate documentation to support the proper accounting for inventory movements related to phone shipments for refitting and refurbishment. Consequently, the Company overstated inventory or receivables by not maintaining adequate documentation of track phones provided to outside services providers. As a result of this material weakness, an adjustment was necessary to properly record costs of goods sold and amounts due from vendors — 10K/A states"

"“I was a consultant and speaker for Nevro from [redacted] to [redacted]. I was on the board of [society name redacted]. I just got tired of the company. I’m really well published in the field and it’s nothing personal against Nevro. Their devices just stopped working. Nevro is like a cult, like us versus them. It’s crazy. It’s like Scientology. They’ll cut you out, jump all over you. They’ll ostracize you and they’re very intense about it.” — Former Nevro consultant and KOL"

"No, I don't think I am. As a prescriber, it's always nice to have an FDA indication for a medication that has side effects, because if I'm just going off-label with a drug that could give them diabetes or edema or death, then I feel like I have more cover prescribing a medication with an FDA indication. But I don't think anything you're saying is surprising to me, or that all the things that I've been thinking to myself, and so, I don't disagree. — Pediatric endocrinologist"

"Following investigations into your organization disclosure of information that conceals the truth and fraud, it is determined that you have violated the relevant provisions of the "Provisional Regulations on Corporate Information Disclosure" and the "Interim Measures on the Administration of Enterprise Abnormalities List"... it is now decided to include your company in the list as a business with abnormal operations. — Beijing Industry and Commerce, Chaoyang District Branch"

""The multiples are interesting. Crown's entry into the fiber space clearly has caused an increase in the multiples. If you look at starting at FPL, and then at Wilcon, and then ultimately with Lightower. It's hard to say they're not right or fair. It's just - it requires a different level of conviction and comfort that those core business are going to continue to grow at the rates they've been growing at the time they were acquired." — CFO Matt Steinfort, Zayo October 2017"

""In 2013, we granted two separate performance-based full-value awards..." — MPWR 2014 Proxy Statement; "In February 2012, we adopted our Compensation Recoupment Policy, which permits the Board to recoup any excess performance-based cash compensation paid to key members of our executive team if the financial results on which the performance-based compensation awards were based are restated due to fraud or intentional misconduct by the executive" — MPWR 2014 Proxy Statement."

""The impact was relatively minor in the quarter. When we changed the methodology with respect to how we record recoveries from a cash basis to an accrual basis, we did that in Q3 as we talked about at that time. We said there would be a spillover effect into Q4. It's probably a few million bucks on the write-off rate, and we've disclosed that in the MD&A, in the schedule, the mice print below the, if you will, the table." — Dean McCann, CFO, Q4 2018 Call, February 14, 2019"

"I thought Dave Moehring ran things very well. I was shocked to hear that he was fired. I thought he was a great CEO when I was there. He was one of the main people who avoided the quantum hype. He was very grounded in what we can do and what they should pitch that they're doing. I guess he wasn't hype enough. And then this guy came in and just set up a SPAC, just to go public. I can imagine people would be concerned about that. — Ex-IonQ employee, member of technical staff"