Callouts & quotes from 10,384+ activist slides

"“...Just wanted to say thanks for all the pushing on us over the past year. We have a lot more we need to get done but we have a completely new way of seeing [the] world that is extremely helpful to how we’re executing now. So, thanks.” — CEO Aaron Levie, Email to Peter Feld – September 3, 2020"

"Joe Liu would later be listed as Founder and Director of BCD Semiconductor (Nasdaq: BCDS), of which both Chang’s were involved. The biggest shareholders were entities controlled by individuals with the last name “Chang” and claimed to be “parents-in-law” of Liu — Spruce Point Capital Management"

"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"

"“Over the course of his 38-year career, Rodney has made an outstanding contribution to BP. He has played a critical part in all the major developments of recent years that have transformed the company into one of the world's leading energy businesses.” — Lord Browne, CEO of BP Plc, January 2003"

""The Fed Funds Rate has a big impact on the TED spread, which has a big impact on our securities lending activity...when rates eventually go up and you get back to the more normalized TED spread, this will be a much more attractive business financially" — Bob Kelly, CEO, 3/2/10 CLSA Analyst Day"

"The Appellee Xiangxieli defended that since Zongheng failed to provide the advertisement operation invoices, which caused the untimely payment, and the judgment of the second instance for another case did not recognize the fundamental breach at Xiangxieli’s side either — Court Judgment Excerpt."

"Mr. Smith’s reported compensation far surpasses that of the highest-paid CEOs last year at much larger companies and is about 20 times the median pay for an S&P 500 chief, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. Axon is too small to be in the S&P 500 index — Spruce Point Capital Management"

"We operate in a highly competitive environment. The principal factors of competition in our pest and termite control markets are quality and speed of service, customer satisfaction, brand awareness and reputation, terms of guarantees, safety, technical proficiency and price. — Rollins 2022 10-K"

"“In short, I think that the company is over-hyped, overvalued, and set up to have its Zymergen-like moment. You saw how the Zymergen stock crashed 80% in a day, and I would not be very surprised if that happened to Ginkgo sometime in the next year.” — Former Ginkgo employee in a managerial role"

"“co-authors were not even informed about the existence of this papers...yeah, I didn’t know about it”; “it’s bizarre...she would have recruited a big number, yet her name is not on the paper...very odd...it was very odd that as an investigator....” — Physician, KOL, and Vykat trial investigator"

"Further, analysis of a portion of Inteliquent's likely involvement in the routing of nationwide call traffic concerning Amazon/Apple imposter robocalls was assessed. ... approximately 450 million of these scam robocalls were estimated to be facilitated by Inteliquent. — December 2025, AG Letter"

"Accelerate is complementary to Vitek, because it works with blood stream infection only and our system is much broader. Blood stream infection is a very limited market. We work on everything, urine samples, for example. They only work on blood samples, which is 5% of the tests. — BioMerieux rep"

"Also, on February 1, 2006, Douglas D. Cole, the Company's prior Chief Executive Officer, was appointed to serve as the Executive Vice President of the Company. He will also continue to serve on the Board of Directors of the Company and will act as Vice Chairman of the Board. — 8-K Filed 1/9/06"

"I always have an example, which I'll refrain from quoting now. It is more or less if you were a bank robber, and go into a bank and say: Hello! I'm a bank robber. - If you then go ahead and rob the bank, then you can say: No problem, I told you that I was a bank robber, after all. — Udo Müller"

"Assuming a conservative spherical titanium metal powder price of ~US$130/kg (vs. current estimated market pricing of ~US$200/kg), and using key operating assumptions, the TCF-1 has the potential to generate revenue of ~US$145 million and EBITDA of ~US$100 million in 2026. — IperionX (Mid-2023)"

"“This means that charging is done for 3 hours and discharge for 1 hour. This type of slow charging is very typical for Li metal batteries. Plating of Li is where [a] dendrite growth issue can occur. Therefore charging (plating lithium metal) is often done at slower rates.” — Solid state expert"

"Beyond Meat explicitly tells investors: "we include outbound shipping and handling costs within SG&A expenses. As a result, our gross profit and gross margin may not be comparable to other entities that present all shipping and handling costs as a component of cost of goods sold" — Beyond Meat"

""And then lastly, Walgreens is one of our deepest Services' customer partnerships. They're managing all of our work cloud retail software solutions that Joe referenced. And we're heavily embedded helping them design their labor models." — Jenna Stanley, VP, Global Services, Zebra, May 14, 2024"

"FURTHERMORE, PSX'S REFINERY ASSETS ARE SOME OF THE BEST-IN-CLASS VS OVERALL INDUSTRY WITH A NELSON COMPLEXITY INDEX OF 11.1 — UBS, January 2021; ... [WE] REMAIN SKEPTICAL OF THE ABILITY TO GENERATE EQUIVALENT EBITDA/GAL AS VLO OR MPC, WITH LOWER QUALITY ASSETS... — Piper Sandler, February 2025"

"“...I asked to cancel my subscription. 3 months later, they sent more medication and charged my credit card. They did not send me any kind of notice prior to shipping more medication. I did not authorize them to charge my credit card for $137 and they do not accept returns.” — David N, 4/22/23"

"So we're going to stop talking about individual cases because frankly that's not an effort that we think is fruitful. To put this in perspective, the last case of a patient with geographic atrophy that was reported to us with vasculitis is already from September first, right. — Cedric Francois"

"So, when I look at Phillips, I would say that Phillips is the worst of the bunch we are talking about. I don't like Phillips, and we are really big holders. The biggest issue for Phillips, in my opinion, is that they are not at all focused on creating shareholder value. — Anonymous Shareholder"

"Yeah, whatever, this is an expensive piece of machine. What does it do? They haven't built anything new. It's built of flow cytometry and some optofluidics, which already exist, and they just married the two, and now they're claiming that they can do something fancy. — Takeda ex-lead scientist"

"“I am willing to take anything out of print that offends you” “You have 24 hours to make any change you want” — Laura Martin. “AOL will not hit the guidance...at least not without accounting gimmickry. I am willing to hold on with them in public but let's not lie to ourselves.” — Laura Martin."

"As of December 31, 2018, we had cash and cash equivalents of $172.7 million and short-term investments of $204.6 million... As a result of the enactment of the 2017 Tax Act, we currently plan to repatriate cash from our Bermuda subsidiary to fund our future expenditures in the U.S. — MPWR 10-K"

"The principal arguments against such structures are based on notions of shareholder democracy and protection of minority rights. Perhaps as a result, the number of publicly traded companies in Canada with a dual-class share structure has dropped from 100 in 2005 to 69 in 2018. — Mondaq Article"

"“Boost your online reputation with our premium Trustpilot review services. We provide both Verified Trustpilot Reviews ($10) and Non-Verified Trustpilot Reviews ($5). Perfect for businesses looking to increase credibility, attract more customers, and rank higher in search engines.” — Black_seo"

"We manufacture and assemble zero-emission electric and hybrid drivetrains and conversion kits from components supplied by third parties. For example, batteries, traction motors, power electronics, connectors, cables, and metal fabrication for battery storage boxes. — ADOMANI Offering Statement"

"The buyer was only described as “a very experienced and international real estate investor.” The purchase price was described as being “in the low three-digit million range.” And then “The parties have agreed not to disclose further details of the purchase agreement.” — Assetando press release"

"Customers irate with Lasertec are “begging” KLA and “crying” for it to hurry its launch; KLA's entry will be “devastating,” “catastrophic,” and “game over” for Lasertec which “will disappear” – “everything could turn around in a second...they're out of business, basically.” — Anonymous sources"

"After a national search for a new director, the experience and expertise that Dave will bring to the Essential board is clear. He will be an excellent representative of the shareholders in guiding the company, particularly in matters of growth and branding. — Essential Utilities Press Release"

"“But Telecom Italia’s problems are also self-inflicted. Barely concealed battles between Chief Executive Amos Genish, who was appointed by Vivendi, and the Elliott-appointed board over strategy are likely alienating other investors.” — Stephen Wilmot, The Wall Street Journal, November 9, 2018"

""On a $10,000 invoice they'll take a $4,000 to $5,000 deduction with no justification, an it takes us months to collect the money back," the vendor said. "When it comes to deductions, they're off the scale compared with other customers." — Unnamed vendor quoted in Wall Street Journal article."

"“I am excited to apply my previous experiences turning around underperforming companies to Hess. The prospect of working with management to transform Hess into a highly motivated organization that consistently delivers top quartile results is an opportunity I could never pass up.” — Karl Kurz"

"In what we perceive to be poor excuses for nonperformance, McDonald’s has blamed “industry-wide challenges for farmers and producers, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and global swine disease outbreaks” for its failure to make good on its commitment to end gestation crate use — Icahn Enterprises"

"We are in telecoms but it is complementary to content...We don’t want to be an operator. We don’t want, industrially speaking, to manage a telecoms company. We manage content...We don’t manage Telecom Italia and we will never manage it. — Vincent Bolloré, Financial Times article, June 2, 2016"

"“Nelson was quick to recognize that removing Snapple from a bureaucratic Quaker Oats culture would enable entrepreneurialism and innovation. The result was a dramatic sales turnaround and more than quadrupling of company value in just 3 years.” — Mike Weinstein (CEO of Snapple from 1997-2000)"

"Our blue-chip customer base includes many of the largest global brands. We serve over 1,000 customers that are diversified across all major industry verticals, including consumer packaged goods, financial services, telecommunications, technology, automotive and healthcare. — DoubleVerify 10-K"

"limiting director tenure allows new directors to the board to bring fresh perspectives. A tenure of more than nine years is considered to potentially compromise a director's independence and as such QuickScore will consider tenure > 9 years excessive. — Institutional Shareholder Services Inc."

"「そもそも極端紫外線マスク検査の責任者は、レーザーテック製の装置の導入を勧めた人間の一人でした。1台につき5000万ドルという高額の装置だから、大金の投資でした。こうした装置がきちんと動いていなかったことが、彼にとって大きなストレスになった。それが会議への出席禁止につながったわけです。彼としては稼働率を85%〜90%に近づけたいと思っていましたが、現実は60%〜65%に留まっていることに納得できなかったのです。彼は稼働率を向上させるようにプレッシャーをかけましたが、限界がありました」 — インテルのマスク工場を現場で担当していた、レーザーテックの元フィールド・サービス・エンジニア"

"“THAN JUST ONE PERSON MAKING 100 STEPS FORWARD. LET’S BE UNITED, WORK HARD, AND TURN THIS COMPANY AROUND!! WE DO NOT NEED ANY GENIUS. 100 PEOPLE TRYING TO MAKE ONE STEP FORWARD IS MORE IMPORTANT ... I WILL RESTRUCTURE THIS COMPANY AT MY FULL RESPONSIBILITY.” — Nagamori-san (via company comic)"

"Management stated that it only enters an international market if its meets the criteria of “tradition of rule of law in that country, the track record of judicial independence and respect for property rights, specifically with regard to existing foreign investors.” — American Tower Management"

"“We have found that the consumables revenues increase when a customer upgrades from a VetTest analyzer to a Catalyst analyzer due to the superior test menu capability, flexibility, and ease of use of the Catalyst analyzers, which leads to additional testing by the customer.” — IDEXX 2020 10-K"

"At launch in 2021, Element AIM will be the world's first and only analyzer designed specifically for veterinary medicine to do both fecal and urine imaging in a fully automated manner that is supported by AI for the best user accuracy and efficiency — CEO Wilson at Investor Day, November 2020"

"“Organic growth” Refers to growth achieved by internal investments of the firm. This could be the day-to-day business of the firm or a division of the firm starting a new business from scratch. This is distinguished from growth by acquisition or merger which involves an outside firm. — Nasdaq"

""I think your last question was on how we see 2016, I think I answered already what we expect to get. The message I can add to what I already said is we do not anticipate for 2016 a higher contribution of real estate development projects than in 2015." — Antoine Giscard d'Estaing - Casino CFO"

"“We’re using it for organs who pretty much challenged...if you’ve had a lot of people say no...because that donor is not ‘standard’....very old, over 70 or 65...some problems...like a fatty liver.” — Transplant surgeon and transplant program director at a major academic center in Pennsylvania"

"ISS continues to have concerns with the Compensation Committee's decision to approve bonus payments at 110 percent of target when the company failed to achieve the minimum performance goals for operating income before depreciation and amortization and free cash flow. — RiskMetrics Group (ISS)"

"Leidos has been losing market share to Smiths Detection in the U.S. baggage detection market for some time. In checked baggage Smiths has about 60%, and L3Harris/Leidos about 40%. The TSA has been buying more from Smiths and L3Harris/Leidos market share has been coming down. — Industry Expert"

"“百年意大利品牌 FILA 为直营品牌，无加盟代理政策。” “The 100-year old Italian Fila brand is a self-operated brand. We have a no franchise store policy.” — Fila customer service recording. “We have no plan for Fila to engage in wholesale... We will continue to operate Fila’s self-operated model.” — CFO Lai Shixian."

"“non-informative biomarker...to diagnose...etiologies of central hypersomnia” and that “from a clinical point of view” histamine levels are “not informative tools to differentiate etiologies of central hypersomnia or to assess the severity of centrally mediated hypersomnia.” — Bioprojet paper"

"As Goosehead’s largest shareholder and the person with the most to lose if we get things wrong and as someone with an intimate understanding of Goosehead's needs, I'm highly confident that moves we're making are the right ones to drive long-term shareholder value. — CEO, Q3 2022 earnings call"

"Investigations of the process have highlighted that an initial award appears to be competitive in name only, while Congress itself declares all subsequent awards resulting from backdoor earmarks for the same company do not need to be competitively bid. — Roll Call / Taxpayers for Common Sense"

"When the CFO of the largest miner by market capitalization, Marathon Digital, was asked point blank by a retail investor on the last quarterly call about the company's current breakeven price for bitcoin, the executive gave a vague, rambling response which did not answer this basic question."

"As a provider of long-term privately negotiated investment capital, it is not atypical to defer payment of principal or interest from time to time. As a result, the amount of the portfolio that is greater than 90 days delinquent may vary from quarter to quarter. — Allied's 2001 annual report"

"The jagged steps are so close together in the blue region that you can't see the steps—it almost looks like a smooth curve, but then the steps become obvious at the end. Each step is getting longer, and each step is going up in current, which is on the far right y-axis. — Former R&D employee"

"“Although the single-layer pouch cell is capable of fast charge, there is too much damage caused during that fast charge to do it every single time, and they didn't mention that.” — Former employee; “The cycle life is not specified and my understanding is it’s not so good.” — Former employee"

"“Equipped with only benchtop characterization data of a coin cell or a few pouch cells — which are significantly different from a working battery — and without proof of full scale-up, how can we — and importantly, early stage investors — accurately evaluate a battery’s merits?” — BatteryBits"

"Toyota is a customer and there are governance concerns (about whether there are incentives to increase profits) for vehicle, engine and parts operations with low profits, which is currently a discount factor. A focus is whether or not there will be business reorganisation. — UBS, May 2, 2025"

"“too little, too late” — Southwest Airlines (assigned seating change announcement); “complexities in adapting its revenue management to current booking patterns,” — Southwest Airlines (June guidance reduction); “heart of the company,” — Mr. Jordan; “in charge” — Elliott Investment Management"