Callouts & quotes from 10,384+ activist slides

"Rollins, one of the largest companies in the U.S. pest control industry and owner of the Orkin brand, should already have investors on red alert and replete with skepticism given that it recently settled charges with the SEC for “improper earnings management” and switched auditors. — Spruce Point Capital Management"

"Under one of these agreements, Media Ventures GmbH undertakes to supply Ströer Sales & Services GmbH with advertising copy free of charge for Ströer Sales & Services GmbH which Ströer Sales & Services GmbH uses in order to cover advertising spaces which have not been booked. — Ströer Prospectus, 2 July 2010, p. 139"

"“I’m very familiar with Vykat...I was monitoring all of the clinical trials and read all the publications...I feel like I know pretty much everything there is to know about Vykat.” — Pediatric endocrinologist, leads one of the largest PWS clinics in US with 30-40 patients; 11 endocrinologists, major academic center"

""pathway to net zero emission by 2050 is very narrow" — IEA; "complete decarbonization of the global economy by 2050 is now conceivable only at the cost of unthinkable global economic retreat, or as a result of extraordinarily rapid transformations relying on near-miraculous technical advances" — Prof. Vaclav Smil"

"I've never had a management team suggest to me that their stock was fully valued. That just inherently highlights the disconnect between the investor mindset and the management. When investors see there's such an obvious opportunity to unlock value and management saying, 'Oh, we're fully valued.' — Stacy Nieuwoudt"

""We want to have co-tenants that are meaningful to us. So often times, we'll look at the home improvement chains or sporting goods stores where we believe we can share customers and siphon off some traffic from them. And with very few exceptions, we haven't gone off of that model." — CEO Conroy, Q3'22 Jan 27, 2022"

"We start with the customer in all deals and saying what does this do from that standpoint. But naturally, costs come out. Normally, we'll see gross margin fall to EBITDA. And within 1 year to 1.5 years after the acquisitions, they're highly accretive -- to our margins. — Evoqua CFO, CS Industrial Conf, Dec 2, 2022"

"On your second question, so about 21% of our revenue in Q4 was spent on inventory, on our IoT devices and on inventory. And so with a minus 3% free cash flow margin, our free cash flow margin sans dollars going out the door for inventory would have been positive 18%. — Samsara CFO Phillips, Q4 FY2023 Earnings Call"

""too many layers make you very averse to risk." — Ann Moore, CEO of Time Inc. (quoted in text). "You have low-hanging fruit that you will be able to benefit from in the first 12 months. Then you have things that require significant changes in the way you do your business." — Dieter Zetsche, CEO of DaimlerChrysler."

"They wanted to see how their vehicles were performing, and what data we had compared to data we had. They wanted real time access to the XL Link, and we weren't able to give it to them. The company wouldn't allow it, because I think the data would not show in a favorable light what the vehicles were doing. — ComEd"

"「ファブ運営の経済条件の進化によって、ファブ環境でレチクルを活用するための当社の光学系とウェーハ検査の各ソリューションは、ますます魅力的になっています。つまり、極端紫外線の領域での当社の事業展開です。極端紫外線の領域でいえば、レチクルの90%以上は当社の装置を通っています。当社の設備投資と研究開発費をそのタイミングに合わせて加減しています。レチクル関連、つまり、極端紫外線関連を見てみると、私は年末に数字を合算するのですが、財務最高責任者として、思わず『えっ？！』と声をあげてしまう。レチクルの技術的な課題を克服するために、複数の製品分野にわたり、10億ドルも投入しているのです」 — ブレン・ヒギンズ (KLA財務最高責任者)"

"Kalamazoo, Michigan - June 25, 2018 - Stryker Corporation (NYSE:SYK) announced today a definitive agreement to acquire SafeAir AG... The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018. — Timothy J. Scannell, Group President, MedSurg and Neurotechnology"

""[We] have decided to reshape our company and stay true to our strategy. We plan to simplify BHP Billiton's portfolio with a demerger and unlock value for shareholders as we focus even more on our largest businesses, reduce costs and improve productivity more quickly...." — Andrew Mackenzie, CEO, February 18, 2014"

"Let me make one comment on the Speedway deal relative to that is we still believe we're going to get the benefit of integration. That's not lost because of the supply agreement that we have and the fact that we'll continue to be using our logistics assets. — Mike Hennigan, CEO of Marathon Petroleum, August 3, 2020"

"Over time, anemia events were reported in approximately 18 percent of atrasentan patients compared with ten percent of placebo treated patients, with mean change in hemoglobin between groups of approximately one g/dL; these findings are consistent with mechanism-based hemodilution. — Chinook Therapeutics 2021 10-K"

"Effective January 1, 2017, the Medicare allowable for stationary oxygen rentals (E1390) ranges from $66.53 to $77.16 per month and the OGPE rentals (E1392) ranges from $36.14 to $41.91 per month. These are the two primary codes that we bill to Medicare and other payors for our oxygen product rentals. — Inogen 10-K"

""So pricing has essentially been flat for us. It's still a tough pricing environment. Although with leading -- many leading brands with a 50% share, we tend to be well positioned to put them in place if needed. So pricing, again, has tended to be pretty flat." — Ronald Lombardi, CEO, Q2 2020 Call, November 1, 2019"

"'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"

"Und unser CO und Unternehmensgründer Udo Müller ist jemand, der vor - ich glaube 25 Jahren - angefangen hat, den Außenwerbemarkt zu konsolidieren. Er ist einfach ein begnadeter Deal-Maker und für ihn ist eigentlich jede Woche, in der er keine Firma kauft oder einen Deal machen kann, eine verlorene Woche. — C. Sch."

"there is no way the SEC isn't going to demand a host of disclosures and explanations for why a $1bn PIPE, that no one knows who is participating in, is structured in such a manner that smacks of taking advantage of retail investors. I would be shocked if the PIPE survives as is. — A former SEC enforcement attorney"

"It is a privilege to be working alongside the Nova team who bring such deep and diverse experience and a passion so rarely found. I am very keen and humbled to be working with them to develop and convert the Estelle project, with all its opportunities, into our vision of a tier one gold producer. — Richard Beazley"

"“you just have to have that separation of church and state. And if you don't, you're setting yourself up for a regulatory nightmare. I've done buy-and-build drugs, I've done patches, I've done devices, I mean, it has to be segregated, and they're not doing it.” — Ex-field reimbursement manager working with Harmony"

"The Company performed its annual impairment testing of goodwill based on the December 31, 2021 balances, and, in all cases, the recoverable amounts exceeded their respective carrying values including goodwill; therefore, goodwill was not considered to be impaired as at March 31, 2022 — Saputo FY 2022 Annual Report"

"Yes. Given the allegations regarding freeXmedia and maybe to avoid allegations in the future, is there a scenario that Ströer Media buys further assets potentially from Media Ventures going forward? And has there been another potential issue in the past with — Marcus Diebel JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division"

"In 2015, they were willing to come in with the NFL and take our data as sort of a loss leader to acquire other rights... This time Sportradar did have a harder time getting there on the economics at the end of the day. Genius has some ad tech that may have helped them justify the difference. — NFL Senior Employee"

"During settlement talks in Washington, D.C., von Mayrhauser sat across from Yu. ‘I remember his saying, ‘You’re going to lose, no Western company can win in Beijing. Even if you win, you’ll only get $5,000,’’ Von Mayrhauser says. ‘That pretty much ended the meeting.’’ — BloombergBusinessweek Magazine, May 5, 2011"

""proven track records of operational efficiency, complementary service territories and strong regulatory compliance." — WTRG Deal Announcement; "a strong system of internal governance and controls," and "a significant emphasis on value added through in-house asset management." — SteelRiver Infrastructure Partners"

"At BoxWorks...Our major announcement was the unveiling of Box Skills and Box Graph, 2 new ways we're bringing machine learning and AI to content in Box. We believe AI and machine learning will fundamentally change how we manage, secure and collaborate on content in the enterprise. — CEO Aaron Levie, November 2017"

"“I would like to touch on the management fee reduction we announced in December. First of all, the Erie Indemnity Company Board of Directors sees the management fee as a tool to balance the interest of the shareholders, of the Erie Indemnity Company with the policyholders of the exchange.” — Former ERIE President"

"Henan Ruili appears to be ANTA's largest purportedly third-party supplier. According to ANTA's 2018 annual report, its largest supplier was 3.5% of purchases. Applying the 3.5% to ANTA's RMB 11.4 billion 2018 cost of sales (which should be substantially all, but not exclusively purchases) equals ~RMB 400 million."

"Land and vacant buildings have been valued using the direct comparison method to arrive at the value of the property in its existing state. A comparison was performed with other similarly located and zoned plots of land or buildings that are currently on the market. — CPI PG 2022 Annual Management Report, Pg.126."

""My material costs per aligner are about $5 to $6 and when I factor in labor, I am printing aligners for approximately $10. As my staff gets more efficient, the cost will go lower. 3D printers are getting faster and cheaper as well, so a new investment there will eventually lower the cost as well." — Orthodontist"

"I think what was also interesting about the most recent quarters, we had a much more balanced growth across most of the categories with the exception of our wood business, which is still getting very heavily cannibalized by rigid core vinyl, water-resistant laminate. — Lang, Morgan Stanley Conference, Dec 2, 2020"

""The company's software scans some 400 million YouTube videos a day, analyzing descriptions, views, likes, comments and shares. It then ranks each clip on a scale, deducting points for risque topics like politics, religion, sex and even twerking." — Mark Henry, OpenSlate Founder / Bloomberg Interview, May 4, 2018"

"We link pay with performance through our cash incentive plan, called POBS Plus. The purpose of the incentive plan is to provide an incentive to key employees of the company to reward them for driving the success of the company as measured based on objective financial criteria — Mettler-Toledo 2019 Proxy Statement"

"A memory hole is any mechanism for the alteration or disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts, or other records, such as from a website or other archive, particularly as part of an attempt to give the impression that something never happened. — Wikipedia (via footnote 115)"

"That's the DaaS [driver as a service] market opportunity that we are going to go after and also deliver value for our customers... Our indicative DaaS pricing range, and again recognizing we're a few years away from operating our DaaS business model, is $0.65 to $0.85, okay? — Sterling Anderson, Investor Day 2024"

"I would say that about 50% is a fair number... that throws up some errors... For some reason, the instrument gives you readings all over the place, and then you try to troubleshoot, they'll say, it's too close of a light spectrum and that side's overlapping; you've got to try something else. — Expert Consultation"

"“Exactly. I would say that the person that was the director of R&D, pretty much overseeing the project, was actually a Ginkgo employee at first, so he had really little say because he was an insider from Ginkgo, so he couldn't really tell them what you're doing is not the perfect thing.” — Current Motif executive"

"Fears that PwC Australia's burgeoning conflict-of-interest controversy over retirement payments made to former partners will spread to overseas member firms is piling pressure on local leadership to resolve the widening issue. — Australian Financial Review "PwC Fears Payments Issue Will Go Global", March 22, 2019"

"“I don't know anybody who's gotten approval from their insurance yet”; “they're sort of watching and waiting...again, people are going to look into it, but I don't know many of those will actually end up getting on it...” — Longtime researcher involved in PWS clinical trials at one of the two key PWS associations"

"The Committee is responsible for “periodically reviewing and advising the Board on the Company’s strategic direction and investment in research and development and technology (“R&D”). Such oversight shall include key aspects of internal and external investments.” — Charter for the Science and Technology Committee"

"“Let me be very clear. The foundational plan that we have that we launched the IPO on [...] is delivering on expectation. We've seen that in the last four quarters. You've seen that in our guidance. We see no change to our foundational plan and feel very good about it.” — Acquisition of Bayer by Elanco 8/20/2019"

""It feels very expensive to me. If you go through the three methodologies, valuing the cash flows, on a relative value basis and the third thing is what its worth on a price to book basis if you were to think about it as a financing company. In all three metrics, it's quite expensive." — Former Sunnova Executive"

"In 2021, we made approximately $15 million in equity contributions and made $10 million in member loans to one of the Lighthouse Partnerships for the settlement of hedging activity under one of the project’s power hedge agreements as a result of the February 2021 winter storms in Texas. — HASI 2021, 10-K, p. 100"

"And again, I want to emphasize that as we look at this $2 billion objective, this is coming from every one of the divisions. This has got to be a broad front approach, it's going to be a broad front attack, every division has to be able to perform up to expectations. — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, March 2014"

"We've never been positioning Momo as a live streaming company. We have always been positioning Momo as a social company and we're seeing these - the user experience, the social experience around the newer used cases are actually pretty good in some ways actually better than the live streaming service. — Tang Yan"

""Nutrition Clubs, conducted at residential or [brick and mortar] non-residential locations are social gatherings, bringing together persons who become members wishing to focus on good nutrition and regular exercise in order to achieve optimum health." — Herbalife, Sales & Marketing Plan and Business Rules Manual"

""The project was not successful as it could have been because there were 21 business units and we were not tough enough on limiting the customization. And it's not going to cost $500 million. The overall cost is going to be much bigger, close to $1.0 billion." — Former Stryker Information Technology Professional"

"On February 28, 2020 Atlas acquired all issued and outstanding shares of APR Energy plc ("APR Energy") from the company and other APR Energy shareholders in an all-stock transaction at a deemed value of $405.8 (including certain Atlas shares reserved for holdback). — Apple Bidco Limited Financial Statements 2020"

"Our International business makes up about 10% of our sales. It's highly concentrated with over 50% of International sales in Australia, primarily from 3 well positioned brands that we have there: Hydralyte, FESS nasal sprays and Murine eye care in excess of 20%. — Ron Lombardi, CEO, Q3 2020 Call February 6, 2020"

"NetQin feels very sorry about the stockholders' loss due to the great decline of stock price. However, the loss was caused by the defamatory comments made by Muddy Waters; therefore, NetQin has taken legal action in Beijing to sue Muddy Waters and the report's writer. --NetQin CEO Lin (Source: The Beijing News)"

"NQ Yu Lin: Who says farmers cannot program? Poor people can also have the Chinese dream! They are pointing at the CEO of one of our sub companies, Ruide. The CEO himself will sue Muddy Waters for it. He is a computer science major college graduate. I'd say he has higher education than Steve Jobs and Bill Gates."

"“We use a chip trap developed by Sandia National Laboratories...” — University of Maryland website. “Surface trap fabricated by Sandia National Labs, supported by IARPA. This type of trap has been used to capture ions at JQI and Duke University, as well as other institutions.” — Joint Quantum Institute website."

"We're also adjusting the timeline by which we expect to achieve our longer-term margin targets laid out at our December 2020 Investor Day.... We remain committed to 60% gross margin and 31% adjusted EBITDA margin, and we'll provide an update on timing in 2023... — CEO Jeff Simmons Q2 2022 Earnings Call 8/8/2022"

""It was clear that Keurig and Green Mountain control MBlock." — Former GMCR / MBlock workers; "Nobody in that warehouse can tell you what is MBlock’s, what is Keurig, what is Green Mountain’s, nobody can tell you that. I honestly don’t think the owner of MBlock can tell you that." — Former GMCR / MBlock workers"

"My material costs per aligner are about $5 to $6 and when I factor in labor, I am printing aligners for approximately $10. As my staff gets more efficient, the cost will go lower. 3D printers are getting faster and cheaper as well, so a new investment there will eventually lower the cost as well. — Orthodontist"

"Leading independent proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis has recommended shareholders support meaningful boardroom change by voting for the election of three Elliott director nominees – Brian Coffman, Sigmund Cornelius and Michael Heim – to Phillips 66's Board of Directors at the 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders."

"“We've made clubs visible to investors. We have taken investors to clubs. Amy is consistently putting club tours together. I think it's important for somebody interested in this model to go see a club. And you'll understand that within clubs, it is all consumption based.” — John DeSimone, CFO, November 14, 2012"

"We only recently closed on the deal and are still working to quantify the extent of these synergies. But expect there to be significant opportunities to rationalize expenses by eliminating duplicate sales efforts in combining certain aspects of our teams both of which are based in Seattle. — CFO on Q1’2018 Call"