Callouts & quotes from 10,384+ activist slides

"Over the long term, margin is really not the best measure of our profitability due to that raw material volatility. We think a more appropriate measure of our progress is return on invested capital. — Laura Thompson, Former CFO, Goodyear’s 2016 Investor Day"

"“Dave [redacted], ‘What the fuck?’ [Redacted] sold a bill of goods. He’s brilliant. And he was asked to go on investor calls and tell stories. He didn’t like it. I think Dave had to lie more publicly than [redacted] and didn’t like it.” — Ex-senior employee"

"“Besides realizing these ambitious goals, Monroe will also be tasked with classroom teaching duties that he sees as critical...and also teaching undergraduates in areas ranging from Quantum Physics 101 to The Physics of Music.” — Duke announcement, Aug 2020"

"“Hess has an interesting set of assets that have not yielded competitive shareholder returns over time. And they ought to. Working with the Board to refocus Hess in order to deliver returns to shareholders represents an exciting opportunity.” — Harvey Golub"

"If you look even at the big airlines that have lower margins than the top two, there’s a core airline within them that has the same kind of margins as United and Delta, but it’s dragged down by the stuff that loses money. — United CEO Scott Kirby, June 2024"

""This is a decade-long drama that the board has let unfold," said George F. Colony, chief executive of Forrester Research. "They have shown some dysfunction in the past, and had difficulty coming to consensus." — Ouster of Hewlett-Packard C.E.O. Is Expected"

""And the other advantage is Matrox has great relationships with advanced manufacturing, pharmaceutical space as well as in the semiconductor industry that we think can be advantageous for our core portfolio." — CFO Winters, JPMorgan Conference, May 23, 2022"

"At Transform 2020, company founder and CEO Tom Seibel (and also the founder and longtime CEO of Siebel Systems) reported that C3.ai is on track for a 143% increase in bookings to $447 million in fiscal year 2020, up from $184 million in FY 2019. — ZDNet.com"

"“[We] believe that our integrated business model generates the highest long-term value...So we’re committed to that” — Mark Lashier, March 6, 2025; “We can be bigger than that and we can be better than that” — Mark Lashier (on Bloomberg News), April 8, 2025"

"If you look even at the big airlines that have lower margins than the top two, there’s a core airline within them that has the same kind of margins as United and Delta, but it’s dragged down by the stuff that loses money. — United CEO Scott Kirby, June 2024"

"“Iger has systematically eliminated any executive who could become a successor. To me it’s a real black mark on Iger’s record.” — Gary Wilson, Former CFO of Disney and Director (on Board for 21 years, up to and including the first hiring of Mr. Iger as CEO)"

""[T]he very reason for the per se illegality of the Endless Chain schemes is their inherent deceptiveness and the fact that the ‘futility’ of the plan is not ‘apparent to the consumer participant.’” — Webster v. Omnitrition, 79 F.3d 776, 782 (9th Cir. 1996)"

"Burgiss' roughly 1,000 clients will be a tremendous addition to MSCI's extensive list of clients across endowments and foundations, pensions, insurance, family offices, and other private asset investors. — MSCI Conference Call to Discuss Burgiss Acquisition"

"PERI last disclosed mSRPV in the 2015 MSFT agreement as “a page containing ads displayed to a User in response to Included Searches (a monetizable search result page view).” The most recent agreement does not define the term. — Perion earnings announcements"

"“Beware of hyper promotional technology companies throwing spaghetti on the wall to find a business model. We will explain why we believe Porch.com is the mirror image of The Active Network, a successful short from years past.” — Ben Axler, CIO Spruce Point"

""The company had no money, few value-added services, no brand, the products were just in the early stages, everything had to be done by ourselves, it was continuously operating poorly, and almost closed down several times." — Lin Yu, NQ's co-founder and CEO"

""Almost impossible" to set up functional assays on the machine, which defeats the entire purpose of it... "To develop functional assays specifically for Berkeley Lights tends to be something that's more challenging, in my opinion." — Pfizer senior scientist"

""it's under NDA so I cannot reveal the nature" of the communication; "no company...is fully satisfied with their inspection product...absolutely every product now has different problems...APMI, actinic patterned mask inspection is a huge challenge." — Isteq"

"Even Isteq stated that the "new" source technology they licensed to Lasertec for its A300 "Urashima" is a pipe dream that is as fatally flawed as Ushio's; that Lasertec's EUV tools are a failure; and that key customers like TSMC and Intel are angry. — Isteq"

"TAL seems to have deliberately obfuscated DFRL was transferred to Shunshun. In our opinion, this failure to identify DFRL / Shunshun as a related party transaction is to avoid scrutiny of the propriety of the transactions and the subsequent valuation gains."

"As of December 31, 2020, our employees were mainly based in mainland China. A large portion of our employees are based in Beijing where our headquarters is located, and the rest are mainly at our subsidiaries and branches across the nation. — BEKE 2020 20-F"

"And we're now to the point where if you take Snap out of the equation, look at our exclusive brands line. We're launching over 200 new products a year across all of our categories. That's driving a lot of that growth. That's part one. — Robert Aarnes, Q3'24"

"According to the 10-K, BID generated $26M of 2013 Agency commission revenue from Finance loan collateral. Assuming ~28% average Agency margins and 35% taxes, yields $4.7M of net income, or ~4% of ROE. Some of these sales may have occurred without financing."

"If you look even at the big airlines that have lower margins than the top two, there’s a core airline within them that has the same kind of margins as United and Delta, but it’s dragged down by the stuff that loses money. — United CEO Scott Kirby, June 2024"

"「この製品はまさに魔法です(...) とても癒され、成分豊富で、かつ潤いも与えてくれます」 — MakeupAlley (Curél, US). 「実に革新的な製品です」 — Try&Review (freeplus, Singapore). 「食べられるのなら食べてしまいたいほど、最高！使うことが楽しくなるご褒美です」 — Cult Beauty (Molton Brown, UK). 「この日焼け止めが大好き！日焼け止めを毎日使うのはこの製品が初めてです」 — Kokoro (Bioré, Japan)."

"最も高い利益と最も多くのリピーターを持つ企業というものは、高いロイヤリティに恵まれているので、実は、事業運営ではマーケティング費をほとんどかけていません。これは少々理想主義的な話ではあるかもしれませんが、例えば、一度発売されると高いロイヤリティのおかげで長期間使用されるような、徹底的に研究された製品さえあれば、必要なマーケティング費用は、実はごくわずかで済むのです。一方、すぐに別の製品に切り替えることが可能な製品の場合ですと、多額のマーケティング費が必要になります。 — 長谷部佳宏社長 2023年株主総会にて"

""Overplanting" refers to the situation in which the installed generating capacity or nameplate capacity of the facility is larger than the generator's grid connection. — National Policy Statement for Renewable Energy Infrastructure - EN-3, Appendix 6, p. 95"

""Iger has systematically eliminated any executive who could become a successor. To me it’s a real black mark on Iger’s record." – Gary Wilson, Former CFO of Disney and Director (on Board for 21 years, up to and including the first hiring of Mr. Iger as CEO)"

"Kullman’s most recent aggressive sale and price targeting raises a red flag and questions as to the CEO’s valuation view...That was the largest sale at DD in at least 10 years [September 2014 exercise-and-sale transactions]... — InsiderScore Report, 9/25/14"

"If you look even at the big airlines that have lower margins than the top two, there’s a core airline within them that has the same kind of margins as United and Delta, but it’s dragged down by the stuff that loses money. — United CEO Scott Kirby, June 2024"

"Maybe rounding this up and coming a little bit back to your second question, how the most recent acquisitions fits into that structure, and maybe I'll try to give you 2 or 3 examples and linking it just back to what Udo said. — Unknown Executive, Ströer SE"

"“...so in our most recent quarter, on that metric, we reported 106%. And I think the kind of commitment in what Mark [Wayland, Chief Revenue Officer] was saying was we're going to improve that rate from here.” — CEO Aaron Levie, 2019 BoxWorks, October 2019"

"The claim for judicial review is allowed. (7) The non-material amendment (reference DM/23/03147/NMA) made by the Council on 7th November 2023 is quashed. (8) The Council do pay Mr Galloway’s costs of the proceedings summarily assessed in the sum of £9,000."

"“Starboard's average return on a 13D filing is 26.4% (versus an average of 9.7% for the S&P500 during the same time periods). However, when they have received a board seat, their average 13D return has been 34.5% versus 14.8% for the S&P500.” — 13D Monitor"

""I have consistently communicated my belief in the importance of deleveraging. I've been transparent about our attention to take the debt down to 0... I'm excited for the day when we can announce that our debt has been paid off." — CEO Stetson, May 5, 2022"

"In general, we believe that there is strong evidence that vertical integration between content and distribution companies has had limited, if any success. — Morgan Stanley (Richard Bilotti, The Sum of the Parts is Greater than the Whole, December 15, 2005)"

"In general, we believe that there is strong evidence that vertical integration between content and distribution companies has had limited, if any success. — Richard Bilotti, The Sum of the Parts is Greater Than the Whole, Morgan Stanley, December 15, 2005."

"What are you looking for? Work From Home, Extra Income, Own Business, Financial Freedom, More Spare Time, Personal Development, Helping Others, Meeting New People, Retirement / Pension, Leave a Legacy — Herbalife Independent Distributor Presentation (2010)"

"Yes. Obviously, we don't give margin targets by segment, but I would say that within ESG and Climate, our focus is really on driving top line growth, not margin expansion. And so we're not targeting for the margin to expand from current levels. — CFO Q2'22"

"“...we and our subsidiary bank received a proposed consent order from the Federal Reserve Board relating principally to various aspects of compliance risk management, including consumer compliance and compliance with AML regulations.” — Green Dot 2023 10-K"

"“An example is Uranium Energy Corp. One of its directors is Stephen Jewett, a Vancouver CA who was barred by the CA institute from auditing any public companies after he mishandled the audit of an unrelated Vancouver junior company.” — Investment Executive"

"「アクティニックはマスク検査には不十分となっていくでしょう。なぜかといえば、その解像度では捉えられない欠陥が問題となるからです。各局、電子ビームが必要になります。マスク上の要素（トランジスター）は極端紫外線の波長である13.5ナノメートルよりも小さくなります。だから、検査するためには極端紫外線よりも高い解像度が必要になります。したがって、各社は電子ビームのソリューションの開発に取り組んでいます。KLAはその1社です」 — 半導体製造装置企業の上席幹部として長年の経験を持ち、レーザーテックのCEOに親しい人物"

"HGV is trading at a material discount to its closest peer, Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp. (NYSE: VAC) ("VAC"), based on 2022 EBITDA, whereas HGV historically traded at a comparable multiple to VAC. — HGV's Response to 4.20.21 Land & Buildings statement"

"A composite outcome consists of two or more component outcomes. Patients who have experienced any one of the events specified by the components are considered to have experienced the composite outcome... Unfortunately, composite outcomes can be misleading."

"A qualitative impairment analysis was performed on all reporting units for the fiscal year ended 2019, while a quantitative analysis was performed for fiscal years ended 2018 and 2017. The analysis concluded that goodwill was not impaired. — ACMR 2019 10-K"

"“That’s our plan, yeah. I hope...for liver transplant, we use it obviously a lot more than heart or lung. I know our surgical director is not a fan of TransMedics and he’s actively working on strategies to minimize our reliance on it.” — UCSF administrator"

"Refined the Company's growth strategy and set clear strategic and operational priorities and goals to create a higher-growth, higher-value company – this work included the decision to separate the Performance Chemicals segment — DuPont 2014 proxy statement"

"Long-Term Safety of Diazoxide Choline Extended-Release (DCCR) Tablets in Participants with Prader-Willi Syndrome from the Completed C601 Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study (DESTINY PWS) and C602 Open Label Extension (OLE) Study — Poster Title"

"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"

"I think it's a problem that's going to be with them for a number of years. So even if they [MCY] manage to get through this, the price they're going to pay going forward is going to be orders of magnitude more than they paid this year. — Reinsurance Expert"

"“there’s a huge risk here to Lasertec…if machines are piling up and KLA is going around reassuring people that if you can hold off until mid-2025.” — Longtime executive at Global Foundries; directly involved with Lasertec and all aspects of mask inspection"

"Transaction fees vary based on the corridor, the currency in which funds are delivered to the recipient, the funding method a customer chooses (e.g., ACH, credit card, debit card, etc.), and the amount of the customer's principal. — Remitly IPO Prospectus"

""We expect that [vet clinics on the Vets First Choice Platform will] identify more than $0.5 million to $1 million of incremental new revenues to their practice." — Benjamin J. Shaw, CEO of Vets First Choice on April 23, 2018 (announcement of transaction)"

"In September 2021, the Company entered into a multiyear deal with UMD to provide certain quantum computing services and facility access related to the National Quantum Lab at UMD in exchange for payments totaling $14 million. — IonQ 10Q filing for Q3 2021"

"We derive 59.8% from two figures. An expert in structuring renewable investments described the Tax Equity Partner's benefit to us as an ITC of 30% of project value and 14% in the form of depreciation, combined with a typical ~8% cash return. — Footnote 66"

"“That was my primary part in the company, scaling up the DNA to have enough for these customers...In the team that I was with, we’d have to scale up the cells for 16 hours. So, that’s a bottleneck for maxiprep.” — Ex-Twist employee in a manufacturing role"

"Muddy Waters’s proprietary (engineered in-house) stochastic probability-based China dynamic matrix decision making application indicates that, within the 95% confidence interval, such request would have been met with a response of “F—k you.” — Footnote 27"

"While I was there, we were much higher. Like over time, I'm sure that the price has come down, but it was well-known that we were at a premium. And we would really only reduce pricing in exchange for a long-term contract. — Former strategy executive at DV"

"Operating revenues from non-recurring revenues increased 48.7% for the six months ended June 30, 2023, primarily driven by one-time license fees related to prior periods, as well as non-recurring licensed data products. — MSCI Q2 2023 Financial Disclosure"

"「私はサイマーには10年いました。極端紫外線光源の開発のために採用されました。全部で10年〜11年ほど、さまざまな極端紫外線装置の開発に関わりました。半導体製造装置のもう1社は、極端紫外線マスク検査装置の開発のため、その分野の専門家が必要になるということで、〇〇〇頃に私を採用してくれました。当初は極端紫外線光源の責任者で、その後、光源と光学系全般の責任者になりました」 — サイマー（後、ASML）ともう1社で極端紫外線の光源の開発における中心的な役割を果たした人物で、当該分野における名だたる科学者・専門家"