Callouts & quotes from 10,384+ activist slides

"Our results for the quarter were mixed. Our 55 net new placements were up over 90% year-over-year, but came in below our expectations .... The miss was largely EMEA. And we had turnover in Germany where we had planned on several capital deals and then a large distributor deal that, while we could have closed that sooner, we held out for better pricing. — Mehren"

"What astounds me and really made me a little hesitant on the way here is that I know of no other company on the stock exchange where everyone, including all the analysts, are saying "buy" and the discrepancy between the price and lowest analyst target price - it was 62.50 euros, I think, from Kepler Cheuvreux - is so huge as in this case. — Jens Starke-Wuschko"

"“As soon as you get to 2023, then you get to go to scale in a different way, which is, I just tell somebody in Taiwan to start and give me 10,000 of those things. And you get to scale through manufacturing, as well.” [...] “We don’t have a manufacturing problem. You want a million qubits? No problem. That’s easy.” — Peter Chapman, IonQ CEO (Dec 2020 interview)"

"During the fourth quarter of 2020, changes in mine plans and the determination that certain mineral reserves previously forecasted to be mined were no longer considered economic due to poor geologic conditions reduced forecasted cash flows for one Met and one CAPP - Thermal asset group to amounts below those required for full recoverability. — AMR 10-K, p. 106"

"Stepping into the asymptomatic market and asking for, what, $250, what you said, or $500 or $750, I think this would be impossible. If you just say, it's like this, okay, we want to put, let's say, 12 million Zios, everybody will say, okay, forget it...As much as it sounds great for the company, but it's not realistic. — Director at Philips Healthcare, 6/27/24"

"In the second quarter of 2023, our advanced location technology solutions business, which is primarily comprised of radio frequency identification devices ("RFID") and real-time location solution offerings ("RTLS"), moved from our Enterprise Visibility & Mobility ("EVM") segment into our Asset Intelligence & Tracking ("AIT") segment — Zebra 10-K Annual Report."

"Yeah, I think they saw the writing on the wall that companies like Walmart and Amazon, etc., they're always looking for new innovative technologies. They are always looking for removing the barcode from that, so it makes sense for Zebra to invest in companies or technology that's going to help them round it out and keep those customers. — Former Zebra Employee"

"Gross margin decreased to 45.6% in the current year compared to 46.4% for the prior year primarily due to product volume deleveraging, the negative impact of foreign currency changes and inventory-related charges, partially offset by pricing, higher service and software margins, and lower premium freight and component part costs. — Zebra Technologies 2023 10-K"

"“Now you have to examine every one of those oligonucleotides and determine how many errors were created in the oligonucleotide base pair sequence and then cull out those that meet the customer requirements... It’s expensive, it’s slow, and it requires a lot of high-level PhDs to run it.” — Longtime oligonucleotide manufacturing expert and executive; ex-Agilent"

"“IDT was the biggest threat when I was at Twist, and one of the reasons why I saw a lot of value in [redacted] was I didn’t want to work for a company that didn’t perform as well. Since joining, Agilent has released new chemistry, and so has Roche. So, they’ve all caught up to that, and it’s no longer a big advantage.” — Former employee now at a key competitor"

""There are now technically two companies that still manufacture large solid rockets for military ICBMs — Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, which absorbed Orbital ATK in a deal that closed June 6. The industry is poised to become a monopoly, however, as Aerojet's large solid rocket motor business is on not-so-solid ground" — Space News"

"“Herbalife’s entire business model appears to incentivize primarily the payment of compensation that is ‘facially unrelated to the sale of product to the ultimate users’ because it is paid based on the suggested retail price of the amount ordered [from Herbalife], rather than based on actual sales to consumers.” — Federal Court in California, Herbalife v. Ford"

"“Some organs, I don’t think they’re safe for transplant. I think they might not work, or they might not work long enough...this is my professional judgment...maybe I’ve done 800 of these transplants or more than a thousand...I trained for years, so when a liver doesn’t work, it’s a disaster.” — Transplant procurement surgeon previously working with TransMedics"

"BP Moves Chief Executive to Lesser Role in Spill Response — The New York Times; Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun to step down in wake of safety issues — Axios; Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf Resigns Amid Scandal — NPR; 3M Names New CEO Amid PFAS Battles, Health Spinoff — The Wall Street Journal; CEO of Canada's Suncor Energy steps down after latest site fatality — Reuters"

"Recent setback related to the DOJ backing the EPA's stance despite the administration's pro-mining orientation shows there is considerable risk in developing an Alaskan mine where local communities can express strong opposition to protect wildlife. Nova will also have to navigate a variety of laws and regulations related to wildlife to advance Project Estelle."

"“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."

"An important part of financing projects is finding a financing partner that believes in your long-term view... All the project developers are concerned with is finding someone who will buy the asset at the forecast price. And that forecasted price doesn’t necessarily have to be true fifteen years from now, same with any other asset. — Former Engie Executive B"

""Why not give the menu changes an opportunity to take hold, instead of providing doubters further reason to gripe if the store remodeling doesn't work quickly?...And just as they aren't going to Chipotle to admire the art on the wall, they're not avoiding Olive Garden because they find the window treatments lacking in character." — Yahoo Finance, July 9, 2014"

""Why not give the menu changes an opportunity to take hold, instead of providing doubters further reason to gripe if the store remodeling doesn't work quickly?...And just as they aren't going to Chipotle to admire the art on the wall, they're not avoiding Olive Garden because they find the window treatments lacking in character." — Yahoo Finance, July 9, 2014"

""To date, we've invested a total of $73 million in the factory of the future. Total investments can be, from a CapEx point of view, it's going to be roughly about $110 million. So in terms of where we're at, we've actually hired 40 people from our San Francisco site to move up to the Factory of the Future." — Twist CFO Jim Thorburn at conference – Aug 9, 2022"

"In our GetSmarter business, students enroll with and pay tuition directly to GetSmarter, and we recognize the full amount as revenue. We then pay the university partners their share upon course completion, and this expense will make up the first part of a new cost line on our P&L called curriculum and teaching — Catherine A Graham, CFO (2Q’17 Conference Call)"

"“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."

"“they’re holding off near-term shipments until they resolve these quality issues.” — Unnamed Executive. “they were visiting in part because of...quality concerns with the equipment, and to get a first-hand view of what is done in the factory to improve outgoing quality” — Global Foundries Executive. “there was no data that they had” — Marvell Senior Employee."

"The Company records certain costs to effect acquisitions as they are incurred, which are reflected in general and administrative expenses on the Company's Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income in the amounts of $1.5 million, $0.3 million, and $0.8 million for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. — ROAD 10-K filings"

"“The Trinity thing is well known. The NORA thing, I don’t think it’s as well-known, but I was at a meeting in Boston, and I made the comment, I’m like, ‘Yeah, they offered me a private flight,’ and the woman sitting across from me was like, ‘Yeah, they did it to me, too.’ We both kind of laughed about it.” — CEO of a major OPO (Organ Procurement Organization)"

"“Well, I think partially it's being collected at different hospital systems. And how that data is saved and analyzed differs. And so, I think there's some question on whether it's consistent across all of these places and whether or not we can really compare DEXA data taken at two different systems.” — Ex-Soleno employee #2, key role in clinical trial program"

""But with the introduction recently of Lightspeed Payments, we now have the ability to earn a much larger portion of the transaction value, and this will become a growing portion of our revenue over time." — CFO Nussey, Q1 2020 Conf Call. "But overall, kind of our 2.6% and 65 to 70 basis point net. That's been holding for us." — CFO Nussey, Q1 2021 Conf Call."

"During the financial year ended 30 June 2011, the Group transferred certain financial instruments from Level 2 to Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy, due to changes in inputs to the valuation models to better represent the fair value of the physical forward contracts. The carrying amount of the total financial assets transferred from FY2010 was S$72,621,000."

"“This is definitely a possibility. Another guy and I within the company have been tasked to go direct, to approach the actual source of the data and see if we can do direct deals.” “You can get more from us and our competitors and we can pay less because there is no middleman to be paid...” “Its all doable, its not even near impossible.” — Anonymous customer"

"“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"

"We find it unusual that somebody gets up and gives a speech about a company who never bothers to talk to management. I think most informed investors would appreciate some time spent with us so they can talk these things through unless you are simply trying to develop the short thesis to scare people and make a quick buck and move on. — Mr. Walton, Allied CEO"

"We are pleased to report for the first time that we have made 4-layer multilayer cells in the 30x30mm form factor, and we have now seen close to 800 cycles at 30°C with over 90% capacity retention at both C/3 and 1C rates — substantially similar to the single-layer cells we reported in December. — Quantumscape Q4 FY2020 “Letter to Shareholders”, Feb 16, 2021"

""We have consistent performance ... and we're enjoying double-digit growth rates," Scovanner said. "No one else in the credit-card arena has those attributes. For the life of me, I don't understand why those attributes in combination would cause anyone to want to get into an active mode of analyzing a sale." — Doug Scovanner, CFO, Star Tribune, July 15, 2007"

"The Compensation Committee and/or the Chief Executive Officer also retain the right to exclude extraordinary charges or other special circumstances in determining whether the objectives were met during any particular fiscal year and may decide to grant 100% of the targeted cash bonus award, even if the financial targets do not fall within the specified range"

""Doctors that implanted a lot of devices, they hated Nevro. I don't know doctors who were high volume Nevro implanters that liked it and continued with their device... The only way I know to change that doctor's practice paradigm is bribing. It works. You give a doctor some money and they will say whatever you want." — KOL, former high volume Nevro implanter"

"The Committee took this information into account in determining the compensation package that was ultimately provided to T. Andrew Smith upon his appointment as Chief Executive Officer, but did not use the information to benchmark any element of his compensation. — April 30th, 2014 (Proxy): Compensation Committee discussion on Andy Smith Employment Agreement"

"“the last couple of months prior to me leaving, it was pretty consistent...since they purchased the planes, they basically were like, we’re not going to do this model anymore [of using the closest team to the donor]”; “it seemed to match up with” when TransMedics first bought the aircraft; “that seems to be when it started happening.” — Former OCS Specialist"

""I work with our OPO pretty closely...they also really despise TransMedics...they were being bullied...they wanted their unit access to DonorNet so they could see all of the donors...that were part of the [OPO name redacted] service area....they really didn't like that...they were pushing back...it kind of soured the relationship." — Transplant administrator"

"“I got three calls...so no, it wasn't a floodgate that opened.” — Trial investigator, pediatrician/geneticist, professor. “I wouldn't say anybody is wildly over the moon...it's not like a miracle...I don't think anybody's used the term miraculous to describe that they're seeing...no, it's not a cure.” — Trial investigator, pediatrician/geneticist, professor."

"For modeling purposes, we expect capital expenditures, excluding capitalized software of approximately $5 million to $8 million and share-based compensation expense of approximately $70 million for the full year. Fully diluted shares by the end of the year are expected to be in the range of 200 million to 205 million shares.. — PowerSchool 2021-2022 Guidance"

"“I was very critical, and they didn’t want to talk about the side effects, which I insisted on...they didn’t even tell us that those papers were being prepared or published...there were complications...they develop hairiness...they develop diabetes...they develop edema...we had to give diuretics to some people.” — Physician, KOL, and Vykat trial investigator"

"What I saw from the plant was essentially the bulk of their activities were pre-delivery activities for the non-Buy America bus, I saw several dozen there. We want major components for Buy America compliance. We would want them commissioning the power train, installing the battery, installing the switch gear, and the seats installed there. — Transit Official"

"We must feel assured that we are sufficiently strong to continue to conduct these business operations sustainably and be able to handle the big risks that still exist in the operations. We take a stand, and when we have taken a stand, we must dare be transparent and talk about the difficult and complex challenges that we have. — Ms. Ehrling (at the 2015 AGM)"

"I mean, the guys from Muddy Waters are clever, too. And if you read it through carefully, then you'll see that they seldom said that these are the facts. They say, yes, we suspect that was the case, it would be nice to have clarification, it may be, that this or that is the case, but it could also be quite different; we don't understand it all. — Udo Müller"

"Canadian Tire would be significantly increasing its financial exposure. In the second case, [Dealer] would likely stop ordering inventory, stock would be depleted, customer needs for products would go unfulfilled, and the Canadian Tire brand and reputation would suffer. I accept the concern of Canadian Tire as valid. — Canadian Tire Dealer Bankruptcy Filing"

""The penetration level in private brands of the entire coffee business is between 10 and 11%. It’s been staying about there. But Sturm feels that the potential penetration level of single serve coffee is so much greater than it is for the standard business because the price differentials are going to be huge." — Private label food & beverage industry expert"

""I said to another CEO...who had called me and inquired about Nelson, that if I were to form the board today, Nelson would be one of the first Directors I'd ask to serve because he is an insightful, communicative, enthusiastic, energetic and available Director." — Bill Johnson (CEO from 1998-2013, Trian Advisory Partner Since 2015), CEO Magazine, March 2008"

""Our subsidiary, Spartan Surfaces, reported another strong quarter with fiscal 2023 third quarter total sales increasing by 47.5% from last year." and "We are incredibly pleased with Spartan Surfaces fiscal 2023 Fourth Quarter and full year sales and earnings results, which exceeded our expectations and were accretive to earnings" — Floor & Decor Management"

"“The question that we're getting a lot from investors is how to think about EPS growth and should EPS growth just follow and marry revenue growth, or is there opportunity and would management and the Board come off their 19% and 20% margin range or even perhaps get more aggressive on share repurchases or get more aggressive on M&A.” — Oppenheimer, Aug. 2016"

"Nepotism, Cronyism, Incestuous...you'll find whole families working here- Mom, Dad, Son etc., BEWARE! ... Many of the Directors and Senior Leadership are incompetent but have "connections" so despite their ineptness they somehow manage to maintain leadership positions and some of their husbands or ex-husband works there too! — Anonymous Employee (Glassdoor)"

"“At NiSource we had deliberations on whether it was time to spin off the Columbia Pipeline assets rather than keep those in the company because it was a different business. At first there was resistance within the company, but we ultimately elected to split the company, the market reacted very positively to it, and the rest was history.” — Sigmund Cornelius"

"In Q2, I briefly discuss the increase in account receivable as a result of our strong revenue growth. We saw the impact of strong revenue growth on receivables again in Q3 as AR increased by $29.7 million from Q2 of 2021. We are implementing a new order to cash process as we onboard, new clients and expect to reduce our DSO in 2022. — CFO on Q3'21 Conf Call"

"“. . . If you had to pay $60 at the beginning of each month for that month's supply of coffee, far fewer people could participate. But when you pay $2 a day, it is such a low price point, people can afford it. People living hand to mouth or whatever it may be, so far more people can afford that.” — CFO John DeSimone, Jefferies Consumer Conference, 6/22/2010"

"“At NiSource we had deliberations on whether it was time to spin off the Columbia Pipeline assets rather than keep those in the company because it was a different business. At first there was resistance within the company, but we ultimately elected to split the company, the market reacted very positively to it, and the rest was history.” — Sigmund Cornelius"

"166,000 ounces already pre-developed at Nkran, which don't require any further capital development to access — AKG, press release, 2017-04-27. To-date, the in-pit development work that we have done at Nkran gives us access to ore inventory of 2.7 million tons containing approximately 166,000 ounces that is ready to be mined. — AKG, press release, 2017-05-04"

"“...Verint’s revenue disclosures are lacking...it does not provide inorganic revenue, maintenance revenue, or cloud revenue, metrics we believe would help us better judge the quality of revenue, the contribution to growth of different revenue streams, and organic growth.” — Samad Samana, Jefferies research analyst, Jefferies Research Report January 10, 2019"

"I would say, you know, do you want more of the same or do you want to sustainably re-rate this company? Is this company and is the stock price over the long-term going to be higher or lower with our nominees in that boardroom, instilling accountability, engaging in the necessary oversight? Are you going to make more money with those nominees or less? — John"

"“the majority of the operations...are believed to have been carried out by the pioneering surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub.” — The Guardian (implied context) / “Sir Magdi recognises he was the man for a time when clinical governance was less tight and ethical positions still fluid. Would his pioneering be possible today? Definitely not, he says.” — BMA’s The Doctor"

"I actually looked into this a few months ago; it's like the price increased significantly. When we were doing it ourselves, I think it was around $20 or $30,000 per disposable. And now, I think bundled together, it's getting closer to $80 to 90,000. ... The cost was nowhere near what it is now. — Transplant cardiologist at a major Ivy League academic center"