Callouts & quotes from 10,384+ activist slides

""Canada is a relatively large business... and it's quite profitable." — Carlos Rodriguez, Q2'2015 Conference Call. "[T]he old GSI in Europe was what I would call more margin focused." — Gary Butler, 2008 Analyst Meeting. "Our margins in France, where when we acquired GSI back in '95, are excellent." — Arthur Weinbach, Q4'2006 Conference Call."

""Investors suffer in the Vincent Bolloré game of thrones. . . . it begs the question of whether others should go along on his opaque quest." — John Gapper, Financial Times, April 13, 2016; "Shareholders who want transparency, certainty, and good corporate governance should probably look elsewhere." — Leila Abboud, Bloomberg, December 16, 2015"

"The primary purpose of this analysis is to protect Greenlight's reputation for thorough analysis and refute the spurious claims by Allied's management that Greenlight Capital did not talk to management in the course of its analysis and is out to “develop the short thesis to scare people and make a quick buck and move on.” — Greenlight Capital"

""We're [Anadarko] very committed to capital discipline and...as we constrain capital, we see better returns on our projects, we quit dipping down to the lower tier, we keep that continual high grading effort going on and on... We're going to be very disciplined as we go forward." — Karl Kurz, Shareholder Nominee, Former COO Anadarko, May 2008"

""[T]here remains a sense that the company retains a 'small-company' mentality that is lacking the structured corporate processes often found in larger companies...better tools and formalized structure more akin to a ~$3B market cap company could help" — Summary from Wedbush Interview with Former Buffalo Wild Wings Marketing Executive, 2/14/17"

"“The single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power... If you’ve got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you’ve got a very good business. And if you have to have a prayer session before raising the price by 10 percent, then you’ve got a terrible business.” — Warren Buffett, May 26, 2010"

"Certain of our key operational metrics, including estimated gross contracted customer value, are based on various assumptions and estimates we make over an extended period of time. Actual experience may vary materially from these estimates and assumptions and therefore undue reliance should not be placed on these metrics. — Sunnova S-1 Filing"

"“I don’t think it is. I think they need to specialize more in library prep to compete with players who dominate that market like Roche, NEB, and even now IDT, and to making primers...where I think they are lacking in the ability to grow is they can’t make primers. That’s a huge portion of the market.” — Former employee now at a key competitor"

"The IRS Free File Program is currently the sole means by which the IRS offers tax software directly to taxpayers and its continuation depends on a number of factors, including continued broad public awareness of and access to the free program and continued private industry donations, as well as continued government support. — Intuit 2023 10-K"

""much less real estate" — James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley; "I don't think any company's going to go back to 100% of the workforce in the office." — Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock; "It allows us to look for new talent in locations where maybe we haven't before and tap into talent pools across the country." — BMO Chief Human Resources Officer"

"Which actually is reflected in CLEAR’s decreasing quarter by quarter retention rates, customer retention rates, which, by the way, are overly inflated because it’s got the American Express population in it, which is automatic renewal anyway, and B, it includes buybacks of 2 or 3 months free to get customers to try you again. — Former Employee"

"“Pyramid schemes are said to be inherently fraudulent because they must eventually collapse. Like chain letters, pyramid schemes may make money for those at the top of the chain or pyramid, but ‘must end up disappointing those at the bottom who can find no recruits.’” — Webster v. Omnitrition, 79 F.3d 776, 782 (9th Cir. 1996), quoting Koscot."

"“...The entire episode has also revealed the limitations of ‘Disney nice.’ Avoiding face-to-face conflict, at least at the CEO and board level, fostered an environment where Iger and Chapek couldn’t hash out their differences. Executives who openly challenged others — Mayer, Rice, McCarthy — were ultimately dinged for their frankness.” — CNBC"

"“in addition to the significantly increased costs borne by transplant centers to utilize the device itself, TransMedics is pressuring hospitals to use their more expensive aircraft, not only for transportation of organs, but also for the convenient of their staff and equipment.” — Congressman Paul Gosar letter to TransMedics CEO, Feb 21, 2024"

"“We were the folks that actually cloned the human H3 receptor, and that's public domain, and we began with a high throughput screen. We ended up with a bunch of really good compounds, and once we published that stuff, every other company jumped on.” — Longtime senior scientist at Johnson & Johnson, with global leadership roles in neuroscience"

"“The biggest one was the cataplexy. If you coded the patient narcolepsy with cataplexy, that was your best go-to. The problem was the patient doesn't have cataplexy. So now the discontinuation or is diagnosing cataplexy because that's how you got it covered.” — Ex-Harmony territory manager for a large region in the southeast across two states"

"“the failure of the clinical trial and then the extension that had the signal, of course, I'm familiar with that...I agree that it's marginal...there is definitely some pressure and expectation from families” — Pediatric endocrinologist, leads one of the largest PWS clinics in US with 30-40 patients; 11 endocrinologists, major academic center"

"“Pyramid schemes are said to be inherently fraudulent because they must eventually collapse. Like chain letters, pyramid schemes may make money for those at the top of the chain or pyramid, but ‘must end up disappointing those at the bottom who can find no recruits.’” — Webster v. Omnitrition, 79 F.3d 776, 782 (9th Cir. 1996), quoting Koscot."

"In the course of our recent re-assessment of the fair value of our portfolio as of 30 June 2022, we have applied our internal valuation model, while only limited properties were subject to external valuations. This re-assessment resulted in no material fair value adjustment of our properties. — Vivion's €1b EMNT Program, Nov. 11, 2022, p. 116"

""they made a multitude of offers to try to get us to basically purchase more equipment." ... "other concessions were made like extended warranty service...at no additional cost...even guaranteeing service time like 60-70%...if not then we could take some kind of reimbursement...for the lost time of use" — Senior employee at Marvell Technology"

""they made a multitude of offers to try to get us to basically purchase more equipment." ... "other concessions were made like extended warranty service...at no additional cost...even guaranteeing service time like 60-70%...if not then we could take some kind of reimbursement...for the lost time of use" — Senior employee at Marvell Technology"

"Ms. Ehrling has talked about Telia’s ability to operate in accordance with “Nordic heritage and culture”, the company has, as far as we can tell, completely failed to try to make any past employees, advisors, or counterparties accountable for actions — actions that we believe have done far more damage to TeliaSonera than investors appreciate."

"“I’ve known Monroe and Kim for probably about 20 years... Quantum computing currently is absolutely going through a major hype phase. There’s no question about that. There are a lot of promises regarding what it can deliver, and there’s a big gap with respect to the reality of what’s actually out there.” — Leading quantum computing scientist"

"“If the market values of our homesites, our remaining inventory of completed homes and other developed real estate assets were to drop below the book value of those properties, we would be required to write-down the book value of those properties, which would have an adverse affect on our balance sheet and our earnings.” — 2009 10-K, page 12"

"We have true opportunity for margin expansion through operating leverage, driving commercial and operational excellence and continuing to shift our portfolio towards digital solutions. — CFO Roland, Investor/Analyst Day Sept 30, 2021; The reality is Xylem’s digital sales are actually dilutive, not accretive. — Former Xylem Executive Response"

"marked ability to commit a crime — Tribunal of Milan; full and conscious adherence to the delinquent plan — Tribunal of Milan; socially dangerous — Tribunal of Milan; the evidence seems decisive — Tribunal of Milan; the inclination to lie of the new management, willing to affirm falsehood in order to preserve the existing — Tribunal of Milan"

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

"I guess the question to really ask is what's the continuing value proposition in the world that has significantly changed? ... I think revenue is going to be pretty easy for them to drive, but I think margin is the one that I really question, if they don't have a significant differentiator. — Former TASK Executive Interviewed By Spruce Point"

"“By 2007, operating an Herbalife independent distributorship business had become unsustainable. Herbalife’s entire program is based on purchases made from Herbalife. Distributors have to purchase product from Herbalife each month in order to obtain their paychecks.” — Bruce Roth, Declaration in Herbalife Int'l of America, Inc. v. Ford et al."

"Should the providers of platforms, particularly browsers, further block, constrain or limit our ability to offer or change search properties, or materially change their guidelines, technology or the way they operate, our ability to generate revenue from our users' search activity could be significantly reduced. — Perion 2021 20-F / 2022 20-F"

"We believe that an effective and well-functioning board that has appropriate governance structures to facilitate oversight of a company's management and strategic initiatives is critical to the long-term financial success of a company and the protection of shareholders' economic interests — BlackRock Proxy Voting Guidelines for US securities"

"“Our proprietary paresthesia-free HF10 therapy, delivered by our Senza system, was demonstrated in our SENZA-RCT study to be superior to traditional SCS therapy, with HF10 therapy being nearly twice as successful in treating back pain and 1.5 times as successful in treating leg pain when compared to traditional SCS therapy.” — Nevro 2020 10K"

"“I don't know anybody in cardiac transplant as opposed to liver that are using a TransMedics-hired surgeon...the NOP market, the soup-to-nuts offering, is useless for cardiac because I don't know many cardiac surgeons that would ever trust anybody except their own surgeons.” — Prominent surgeon, Director of leading academic transplant center"

"Sony's Master Series Z9G 8K TVs are leading entrants in the new category, providing the eye-popping 7680 x 4320-pixel resolution that defines 8K, along with a host of features and performance tweaks unique to Sony TVs. The result is staggering, with giant screens, unbeatable detail, and fantastic clarity and realism — Tom's Guide, April 2019"

"The plasma level average was 100.6±78.1 ng/ml (n=17). Elevated plasma levels (> 150 ng/ml) were observed in 5 patients, in some cases related to the experience of adverse events occurring a few hours after drug intake. — An inverse agonist of the histamine H3 receptor improves wakefulness in narcolepsy: Studies in orexin-/- mice and patients"

""We think that wearables are a key to the MAHA agenda, Making America Healthy Again ... my vision is that every American is wearing a wearable within four years," Kennedy said, speaking before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Health during a hearing on his department's 2026 budget request."

"“If that pans out, I do see a seismic shift in the DNA synthesis market; if one of these vendors can actually hit those prices and deliver consistently.” — Former Twist manager in a manufacturing role, previously and currently employed by key competitors. “I’m not bullish about their NGS products.” — Former employee now at a key competitor."

"“Herbalife’s entire business model appears to incentivize primarily the payment of compensation that is ‘facially unrelated to the sale of the product to the ultimate users because it is paid based on the suggested retail price of the amount ordered from [HLF], rather than based on actual sales to consumers.’” — District Judge Gary A. Feess"

"“As we work to continually reinvent our category and lead a new era of intelligent finance for SMBs, we are also focused on becoming a more efficient, agile organization so that we can move faster on high-impact opportunities, drive durable revenue growth and deliver superior, sustainable value creation.” — René Lacerte, BILL CEO (10/16/25)"

"“For 2012, the compensation committee used Adjusted EBITDA as the sole performance metric under the annual and long-term incentive compensation programs because it believes that Adjusted EBITDA provides a simple and understandable measure of our recurring profitability and it is highly correlated to our stock price performance” — 2012 Proxy"

""we said that we think it could be $10 billion product for us in a market that could be $90 billion. Clearly, we are going to be one of them." — Albert Bourla (PFE CEO), January 9, 2023. "And that's how we get to our $10 billion global opportunity for Pfizer oral GLP-1." — Andy Schmeltz (PFE Global President of Oncology), February 16, 2023."

"“Medical device companies are particularly at risk with respect to FCPA violations. [...] More directly, practices that are common in the medical device industry, such as product discounts tied to purchase volume and incentive programs to encourage increased purchasing, may violate both the letter and the spirit of the FCPA.” — MD+DI Online"

"three of eight patients received diuretics throughout the period of time that they developed respiratory deterioration and fluid overload...however, they did not show any signs of improvement until the diazoxide was discontinued...in addition, similar to findings from the existing literature, the development of edema was not dose dependent."

"“The data is not available. The only person I really asked my immediate supervisor. She didn't know. They'd constantly say we'll find out for you. But the only way that I would know is to be asking physicians, 'Hey, is that patient on drug?' ...nowhere at Harmony is that information available.” — Former territory manager in an eastern state"

""what you will see is anytime there is a new vintage of cards out there, the first year, there are no losses. And then what happens is it spikes up to 10% or 12%. And then it cleans out the junk. And it comes back down to your 6.5%. That's called a vintage." — Alliance Data Systems (Bank of America Conference transcript; September 17, 2008)"

""[M]any Distributors find it all but impossible to make enough money from retail sales of product to cover the overhead of the club and also generate income for the owner." — FTC v. Herbalife International of America, Inc., et al. (July 15, 2016). Case No.2:16-cv-05217, Complaint for Permanent Injunction and Other Equitable Relief, at p.20."

"“We are aware of the A300 series, and that is something that we will be looking at evaluating, but it most likely won’t be until the beginning of 2025 only because there’s hardware demand softness that we’re seeing, and so it doesn’t make sense for us right now to move forward with a new evaluation..” — Senior employee at Marvell Technology"

""we said that we think it could be $10 billion product for us in a market that could be $90 billion. Clearly, we are going to be one of them." — Albert Bourla (PFE CEO), January 9, 2023; "And that's how we get to our $10 billion global opportunity for Pfizer oral GLP-1." — Andy Schmeltz (PFE Global President of Oncology), February 16, 2023"

"If certain factors arise, we may be required to record a significant non-cash charge to earnings in our consolidated financial statements during the period in which an impairment of our goodwill is determined. Any such non-cash charge could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations and net worth. — WTRG 2022 Annual Report"

"The opinions expressed herein stem from an analysis performed by Qverity, Inc. based upon their education, training, and experience in behavioral analysis for use by our client Muddy Waters. Client is responsible for any claims made or brought against them or Qverity, Inc. based upon any further dissemination of the opinions stated herein."

""I think Ströer alone has spent two 2 million euros on lawyers' and auditors' fees, etc. to be 100% sure that everything connected with the transaction was 100% compliant." — Udo Müller (via representative at telephone conference). "No, this" - meaning the package - "was literally the only asset acquired from Media Ventures." — Udo Müller."

""More damning, in our view, is the startling wealth of information strongly indicating that, all other things held equal, Vivendi intends to direct Telecom Italia in the service of its own interests and without regard to the overwhelming majority of otherwise unaffiliated investors." — Glass Lewis, Telecom Italia Proxy Paper, April 7, 2018"

"We are thrilled to welcome IperionX to the Commonwealth. The new Halifax County operation will represent the first titanium metal powder facility in the U.S. using 100% recycled titanium scrap as feedstock, putting Virginia on the map for providing a critical material that is essential for our advanced industries. — Governor Glenn Youngkin"

""My focus is scalability and manufacturability and that's a huge gap... They're not manufacturing folks. They are not process engineers. They're closer to R&D scale." — Former employee; "I think they're buying time to show that they can do these [cells] repeatedly or reproducibly. So, I'm very skeptical of the scale part" — Former employee"

"Electing new management nominees is itself likely to be seen as a vote for the old order; electing dissident nominees, if they carry meaningful credentials and experience, sends a far stronger signal to the incumbent board, and is thus more likely to effect change. — ISS Proxy Advisory Services, Barnes & Noble Proxy Contest, September 2010"

"In the past, executives from TICO have asked Denso to admit direct sales to each OEM from TICO, but no such initiatives have happened so far. It is true that there are currently plenty of lost opportunities and irrationality between Denso and TICO from a perspective of entire TMC group. — Former Sales Planning Chief of a Component Supplier"

"“Celgene has guided a 2020 approval date, and $3B in potential peak revenues. While we view the likelihood of a 2020 approval as high, we believe the potential peak sales will be closer to $1.2B. As a third to market product in a developing market wherein sales have been modest thus far, this guidance is aggressive…” — Cowen, February 2019"

"“Those areas are changing hands for millions. I don't know too much about it because I can't stick my nose in too much. But you know that by law concessions can't be sold anymore. But up until last year they were still being sold. And tomorrow they'll be being sold as well.” — Local cooperative miner who lives and works next to Silver Sand"

"Beginning with the first quarter of fiscal year 2022, the Company revised the foreign exchange rates used to present segment revenues, segment earnings (loss) before income taxes, and Closed sales, to further allocate the foreign exchange impact to the individual segment revenue and profit metrics — Broadridge Financial Presentation Change"

"The biggest challenge was not truly integration. It was that Stryker has a “pompous” attitude let me put it that way. One of the challenges is that Stryker has great relationships, and Mako had a great device, and Stryker was reluctant to put Mako in front of its clients. It took a long time to get over that hump. — Former Mako Salesperson"