Callouts & quotes from 349+ activist slides

"Holy shit. No... I have.. ho... I ... really? Dude, I swear to god I must live under a rock because I had no idea how much that goddamn thing is. That's stupid. But then the drug companies can write whatever they want, right? They can sell it for anything they want. That's unbelievable. — Physician and Harmony speaker in Alabama"

"“I think they're selling below the cost of their product. They set their pricing based on assumed cost and the fact that they have cash to weather it. They put Gen9 out of business using that pricing... I don't think they're ever going to recover from that.” — Ex-employee in senior product management and sales leadership roles"

"“Who wants to bring their family into a struggle to make it? Who wants to bring their family into an eventual deception?” — Stephan Gratziani; “[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"

""It took me two months to get a call with IR, much less an independent director" — Foreign Buyside Analyst; "They need to do more to promote diversity... The current situation is not at global levels... (and) it would be good to see the benefits of diversity and inclusion reflected in the top line" — Domestic Sellside analyst"

"Activist Investor Irenic Builds Stake in Forward Air — THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Activist Ancora Pushes Forward Air to Pursue Sale — THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Alta Fox Calls for Immediate Strategic Review at Forward Air Corporation — Alta Fox. Forward Air retains investment bankers to sell company, sources say — FREIGHTWAVES."

"But for ANTA and the Jinjiang companies, their development history is different. Because they started out in the business of making shoes, so in the market they could not find those distributors who would be interested and with the ability to sell with which they could cooperate (because their brand is weaker). — Mr. D"

"“there was uncertainty around how much we were relying on additional receivable sales, and there was uncertainty about how much we would sell in receivables. That’s the biggest change that is leading to this [updated guidance] and flowing that through speaks to the majority of the change in our GPU line item.” — Garcia"

"“But the reality is this is nothing special. It’s like any other biotech company that provides antibody engineering or library services. So, there’s not much of a differentiator. They’re really hard to sell, but with that many people [in sales], that’s why they do get business.” — Former Twist employee, director-level"

"We shouldn't use DCF if the company is fast changing and difficult to forecast. We shouldn't use DCF if we're selling the company from one private equity firm to another. In that scenario, an LBO model would be better. And we shouldn't use DCF for certain types of businesses, such as banks. — Financial Modeling Course"

"Many of the consumer-friendly offerings that helped Carvana rapidly gain share are no longer unique. For example, all of the “Three reasons to sell to Carvana” provided in e-mails to potential customers: firm no-haggle offer, fast payment, and multiple delivery options are now offered by multiple online competitors."

"Q3. Revenue growth guidance for 2017 of 9% was encouraging as the company announced its plans to sell a new product at Lowe’s this year and enter direct distribution in the UK. For a growth story that had stalled, the resumption of revenue growth is clearly an important sign. — Stifel Earnings Analysis - 8 Feb 2017"

"'Yahoo's asking for restrictions without offering information,' said a sector banker. 'An NDA is a two-way promise. The buyer agrees not to talk, and the seller agrees to disclose private information.' However in this case according to the banker, 'There's no quid pro quo' for Yahoo bidders. — CTFN, March 17, 2016"

""I don't even want you to finish the phone call, I want you to hang up right now and just say I want to sell every share of Lucent because the combination of Lucent and Alcatel is going to be run by Patricia, Run Into the Ground, House of Pain, Train Wreck, Sell-Sell-Sell, Russo." — Jim Cramer, July 31, 2007"

""In order for [refranchising to 90%] to create value requires...selling nearly 500 stores at multiples higher than we believe are achievable...[and] trading multiple expansion to levels significantly higher than demonstrated on a sustained basis by casual diners" — Alex Ware, Chief Financial Officer, 2/7/17"

""The number of large media buyers and sellers in the market is finite, and it could be difficult for us to replace the losses from any buyers or sellers whose relationships with us diminish or terminate. Because of these factors, we seek to expand and diversify our client relationships." — Rubicon 2017-2019"

"Their thinking wasn’t, ‘How do we innovate?’. It was, ‘How do we continue to cut this to the bone so we can sell it for as much as possible?’... ‘How do we play the game of just having enough resources to keep the lights on?’ The hope was, there was going to be one more [flip].” — Former MPLN Executive A"

"I have tens of thousands of people selling with us around the market today at -- with the Microsoft Azure team. I have 4,000 professionals selling with us at Google Cloud and Thomas Kurian. I have 12,000 people selling with us in oil gas from Baker Hughes. — CEO Siebel, Needham Conference, Jan 11, 2022"

"$LSPD is in fake it ‘til you make it mode, where they are cobbling together cruddy & extremely inferior solutions, hiding behind M&A that looks ok to investors FOR NOW. Not 1 investor can show me 10 of their e-comm sites that are fast, awesome looking, & brands everyone knows. — Tall Seller @TallSeller"

""They have even been known to sell technology that has not been invented yet" — Recent reviews; "Sometimes programs are underbid and understaffed" — Recent reviews; "We often find ourselves out of depth (agreeing to contracts with not enough time or money to execute, planning, etc.)" — Recent reviews."

"“Carving out [...] NetCo [...] and then selling it, is, according to us, incorrect, misguided, and would destabilize the future of TIM [...] Employees will suffer. Suppliers will suffer. The whole country will suffer since the NRRP will not be relentlessly executed” — Merlyn CEO Designate (27/10/2023)"

"For the 2020 financial year, we are planning an 8% decline in sales. The scil International Group is planning an 11% decline in sales in 2020 compared to the previous year. The reason for this is the expected discontinuation of a supplier, as he wants to sell his products directly. — Heska 2019 Report"

"“We estimate Zillow participated in approximately 360,000 customer transactions with both buyers and sellers in 2021, which is the first time we reported this metric. We anticipate providing this metric for 2022 in a future quarter.” — Zillow 2022 10-K; “Oh, my, so much blue ocean.” — CEO Rich Barton"

"In December 2016, the Company entered into a master purchase and sale agreement... pursuant to which it sells finance receivables meeting certain underwriting criteria to certain third party purchasers, including Ally Bank and Ally Financial (the “Ally Parties”). — CVNA S-1 (Apr 23, 2018), Pg. F-24"

"[It's] sad: a (formerly iconic) US company selling control to a Japanese company.... But there is a Joint Venture Agreement...which made it practically impossible for Xerox to sell to anyone else.... A really amazing problem” — Charles Prince (Xerox director), in a personal email, February 1, 2018"

""I think they sell between 60 and 80 engines a year and they report 95% into the Aerospace business." — Source C, former Senior FTAI executive. "...I think it's 80/20, right. So, I think they do 80 [whole] engine sales a year that they count as modules." — Source C, former Senior FTAI executive."

"We hope that all listed Chinese companies in the U.S. will form an anti-Muddy-Waters group, to fight against short-selling firms like Muddy Waters. It is hard for one company alone to fight with many short-selling firms, but will be a lot easier when we unite and support each other. — NQ Yu Lin"

""FTAI is roughly selling 22 CFM[-56] engines (i.e., Narrowbody engines) a quarter. They've sold 82 to date [2024], and they still have some closing before the end of the year... I called all the major [traders], all the big guys... I'm averaging around that 22 a quarter." — Consultant A."

""[the Procept rep and I] have coffee after the [procedure] and I'm like 'You selling any robots?', and what they said to me is, 'well, we're renting them out now.' Renting is slang. It could mean they're giving them away...That was nine months ago." — Major Hospital Urologist, Nov 2024"

"Competitors haven't succeeded because they make better products than Kao. They have succeeded because they are better at understanding the needs and aspirations of their customers, then selling and marketing those needs and aspirations to their customers through their products. — Oasis"

"In Russia, PepsiCo had an advantage selling beverages beginning in the early 1970s when PepsiCo's CEO (Don Kendall) negotiated a barter agreement that gave PepsiCo the exclusive right to sell cola in the Soviet Union, which lasted until the mid-1980s. — PepsiCo Company History"

"Ms. Roll responded that the trading market was thin and not representative of where willing buyers and sellers would discover value. Based on its own analysis of Loewen's situation, Allied had concluded that its internally estimated premium valuation was appropriate."

"And secondly, looks like MidOcean is selling this about four years to the day almost from when they bought it, do you guys know what they paid for it and what the EBITDA looked like at that point? — Analyst Altobello; No, we wouldn't comment on that — CEO Farrell"

"“If you mean by “gain on sale” the gain from real estate promotion (i.e. the selling of walls/sites + rights to build attached and one day the option to buy back the walls of the shrunken stores) yes it is included in the EBIT/EBITDA” — Casino Investor Relations"

"Direct Sales Regulations: Only "[a] direct selling company and its branches may recruit sales promoters," and "[n]o entity or individual outside any direct selling company and its branches may recruit any sales promoter." (Art. 13.) — Direct Sales Regulations"

"The stock was thinly traded, and petitioner feared that selling it would cause its value to plummet. Petitioner and his stock broker established multiple nominee accounts to sell the stock while also attempting to stabilize the market. — 2009 tax fraud ruling"

"The things that made Mortara what it was disappeared after the acquisition. The entrepreneurial culture was lost.... Sales people who were familiar with the flagship product were dropped, and it didn't sell as well under Hill-Rom. — Former Mortara Employee"

"“knife fights in phone booths... you’re not really taking share any longer; you’re just trading share amongst those three primary players.” — A former Pure employee. “Toyota, Honda, and Nissan... they’re really close.” — An enterprise IT reseller."

"Biden Blocks Takeover Bid of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon — The New York Times. US Steel Shares Drop After Trump Says No Need to Sell Company — Bloomberg. Nippon Steel wants 100% of U.S. Steel, not a minority stake, report says — The Japan Times."

"Sina Technology: Oct. 29 morning news. NetQin’s FL Mobile games were dropped off of the iOS system as Muddy Waters continued to short sell their stock. In its previous official response to this issue, FL Mobile says it is still under discussion."

"The product comes directly from Japan (a confirmation for the authenticity of the product), which is why it takes a long time to ship and the seller is unfortunately not able to give tracking number but it's very helpful. — Amazon Italy Reviewer"

"From time to time, the Company uses non-recourse factoring arrangements, to sell accounts receivable to third-party financial institutions. The sale of the receivables in these arrangements are accounted for as a true sale. — Amdocs FY 2018 20-F"

"Anytime you can sell a volume of MDI on a rail car basis on a long-term fixed contract basis, that's going to be something we like. So not everything has to go through a system house... — Peter Huntsman, Chairman, President & CEO, December 2019"

"I don't understand the story to be honest that you need to power internally. I mean, if I today am willing to sell the power to the same guys for lower prices than it costs them to build the assets, why building the assets? — RWE CEO Krebber"

"A WFG agent by the name of (b)(6) tricked me into investing $65,000 cash and told me it would be an investment for my future. He tried to sell me life insurance. He has not returned my money and is now disappeared. This was my life savings."

"“value proposition was not there”; will be obsolete in 2-3 years; slammed the tool as absurdly expensive to own and run; price needs to drop by 75-85% to have a shot; others sell “a lot more functionality” for a fraction. — Lonza scientist"

""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 Sales Executive"

"Ginkgo’s business model is built upon selling R&D services (“Foundry revenue” or “Foundry usage fees”) and also taking royalties or equity stakes in customer programs (“Downstream value”). — Ginkgo corporate presentation, Aug 18, 2021"

"The engineering modification and maintenance business acts as an internal MRO shop servicing Boeing and other aircraft needs. We estimate that this represents about 37.5% of total BGS revenue. — Sell side re Boeing Global Services"

"Note: All sell-side analysts who do a NAV calculation either separate out Sales Finance in their EV-to-Equity bridge, or follow a P/E approach whereby net debt does not feature in the analysis(2) — Elliott Investment Management"

"We account for the principal reductions as an offset to our cloud and compute spend within selling, general and administrative expense in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss. — Tempus AI Disclosure"

"It created a climate where it would incentivize agents to sell its parent company products (TransAmerica) by giving them a 25 increase in commissions, thus creating a conflict of intrest. — Anonymous Complaint (2/15/2024)"

"Article 13: “A direct selling company and its branches may recruit sales promoters. No entity or individual outside any direct selling company and its branches may recruit any sales promoter.” — Direct Sales Regulations"

""Being an S&P 500 company is a validation of absolutely nothing, and can be a wasteland of corporate mediocrity. The bigger the Company, the worse the research is from sell-side analysts. Buyer beware!" — Ben Axler"

"we allocate the contract transaction price to each performance obligation using our estimate of the standalone selling price ("SSP") of each distinct good or service in the contract. — Axon's accounting disclosures"

"In this context I would like to comment briefly on the attack by the Muddy Waters hedge fund a few weeks ago. Until April 21, 2016, I was in fact not aware of the term "activist short seller". — Udo Müller, CEO"

"If Alibaba is going to be serious about getting into the entertainment industry, Viacom should sell Jack Ma a piece of Paramount... Jack Ma has a great understanding of the Chinese movie market. — Mario Gabelli"

"“We’re concerned that HMA is potentially selling itself short on its CEO search, as we’ve heard from many talented executives few would consider the job with a heavy-handed chairman.” — RW Baird, June 12, 2013"

"“Instead of selling devices, we started selling a service, and we established what we call a National OCS Program, NOP, where we are essentially like Amazon for organs.” — Ex-logistics employee at Transmedics"

"Among our Index competitors are S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC (a joint venture of S&P Global Inc. and CME Group Inc.); FTSE Russell, a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group plc; and Solactive AG. — MSCI"

"Distributors buy more products than they want to use or can resell, just to stay active in the company or to qualify for bonuses or other rewards. If you see this happening, keep your money. — FTC Article"