Welcome to The Bear Cave! Our last premium articles were “Problems at Teleperformance (TEP)” and “Problems at TaskUs (TASK)” and our next special investigation comes out this Thursday, August 29.
New Activist Reports
An anonymous report circulated on Twitter about Symbotic (NASDAQ: SYM — $13.7 billion), a supply chain automation company that works closely with Walmart. The anonymous report claimed Symbotic was providing misleading disclosures about its system deployments and alleged the company’s CEO “appears to have gone to extreme lengths” to inflate the company’s revenue and backlog with related party deals. The anonymous report also used satellite and drone data to find “multiple instances of ‘sites in deployment’ with zero activity” and concluded that only half the company’s disclosed “deployments in progress” are being actively installed.
Recent Resignations
Notable executive departures disclosed in the past week include:
CFO of Guess? Inc (NYSE: GES — $1.15 billion) “is stepping down to pursue another opportunity that will bring him closer to his family” after a little over one year. The company has had four different CFOs over the last five years.
CFO of Dentsply Sirona (NASDAQ: XRAY — $5.13 billion) will resign “effective November 7, 2024, to pursue another opportunity” after a little over two years. Earlier this month, the company’s Chief Accounting Officer resigned “to pursue another opportunity” after two years. Last year, the company’s Chief Legal Officer and Chief Human Resources Officer both departed according to their LinkedIn profiles. And in 2022, the company’s CEO was “terminated” and the company’s CFO departed amid “an internal investigation into certain financial reporting matters” which ultimately led to a restatement of the company’s 10-K for 2021.
Chief Product and Digital Officer of Shutterstock (NYSE: SSTK — $1.22 billion) “was notified that his employment will end, effective August 23, 2024” after one and a half years.
Principal Accounting Officer of Deluxe Corp (NYSE: DLX — $902 million) resigned after two and a half years. The company has had five different CFOs in the last ten years.
Data for this section is provided by VerityData from VerityPlatform.com
What to Read
“SEC Charges Carl Icahn and Icahn Enterprises L.P. for Failing to Disclose Pledges of Company’s Securities as Collateral for Billions in Personal Loans” (SEC)
“According to the SEC’s orders, from at least December 31, 2018, through the present, Icahn, who is IEP’s controlling shareholder and Chairman of the board of directors of IEP’s general partner, pledged approximately 51 to 82 percent of IEP’s outstanding securities as collateral to secure personal margin loans worth billions of dollars under agreements with various lenders. Notwithstanding Icahn’s various margin loan agreements and amendments, IEP failed to disclose Icahn’s pledges of IEP securities as required in its Form 10K until February 25, 2022.”
“SEC Issues Awards Totaling $98 Million to Two Whistleblowers” (SEC)
“The first whistleblower’s tip prompted the opening of the investigations, and thereafter provided critical additional information and ongoing assistance. As a result, this whistleblower will receive an award of $82 million. The second whistleblower, whose information was provided later, significantly contributed to one aspect of the actions and will receive an award of $16 million.”
“Idea Brunch with Ken Traub of Delta Value Advisors” (Sunday’s Idea Brunch)
“On my first day of work, I met with ABNH’s auditors at Deloitte and Touche (D&T), senior management at both ABN and ABNH, and customers. Shockingly, by the end of my first day I was certain that the company’s 2 most recent 10-Qs filed with the SEC required restatement and nobody in the company or D&T appeared to be aware of this yet. On my second day of work, I met with the board of directors of ABNH and resigned as CFO.”
Tweets of the Week
Until Thursday,
The Bear Cave