The Bear Cave #251
New Activist Reports, Recent Resignations, and Tweets of the Week
Welcome to The Bear Cave! Our last premium articles were “Problems at TransDigm (TDG)” and “Problems at POET Technologies (POET)” and our next special investigation comes out Thursday, December 19.
New Activist Reports
Culper Research published on LendingTree (NASDAQ: TREE — $524 million), an online loan marketplace. Culper alleged the company “is sitting on a time bomb of class action litigation carrying a minimum of $157 million up to $472 million in damages” with a trial date set for November 2025. Culper noted,
“Tellingly, LendingTree has cycled through 5 General Counsels over the past 5 years. Just last month, current General Counsel Healther Novitsky sold the very last of her remaining shares. LendingTree’s COO also left in 2023, and its CFO - who had been with the Company for 12 years - left 4 months ago.”
Culper also said the company “has failed to disclose the impact of new FCC regulations” that will harm lead generation platforms like LendingTree. The regulations go into effect in January.
Bonitas Research published on Serve Robotics (NASDAQ: SERV — $523 million), a sidewalk delivery robot company. Bonitas found that the company’s robots “are struggling with basic maneuvers” and that partners like Uber Eats have started to use competing robot offerings. Bonitas concluded,
“With little/no commercial interest, a significant cash burn and a low probability of scaling up to 2,000 robots by CYE’25, we are short SERV and think its stock is going significantly lower.”
Hunterbrook Media published on Plug Power (NASDAQ: PLUG — $2.17 billion), a hydrogen fuel cell company. Hunterbrook alleged the company “drastically understated water needs for hydrogen plants” and as a result may not receive an important $1.66 billion loan from the Department of Energy.
Independent researcher Lauren Balik published again on Zeta Global Holdings (NYSE: ZETA — $6.22 billion), a data and marketing automation company. Ms. Balik highlighted more ties between Zeta and Paul Roberts, the CEO of Kubient who recently pled guilty to an accounting fraud scheme that partially involved Zeta.
Viceroy Research published an update on Globe Life (NYSE: GL — $8.79 billion), a supplemental life insurance company that operates through a network of independent salespeople. Viceroy alleged that several agencies comprising over 40% of sales in Globe Life’s American Income Life division “appear to have uniformly closed down in November 2024.” Viceroy found that in many of these cases the “offices [are] for lease, phones disconnected, furniture sold, and staff not being retained.”
Globe Life disputed the allegations and said, in part, “every single business named in the report is still in operation.” Viceroy disputed Globe Life’s response and produced internal emails suggesting some offices were indeed closing.
Recent Resignations
Notable executive departures disclosed in the past week include:
CEO of Pulse Biosciences (NASDAQ: PLSE — $1.21 billion) entered into a separation agreement after just seven months and also departed the board.
CFO of Spire Global (NYSE: SPIR — $381 million) “will step down from his role once the company completes its previously disclosed review of certain accounting practices and the related restatement” after a little over one year. The company’s CEO will also be moving to the role of Executive Chairman in January after 12 years.
CFO of Corpay (NYSE: CPAY — $25.5 billion) will resign in March 2025 “to join a Christian not-for-profit organization as Chief Financial Officer” after two years. The company, formerly known as FleetCor, has had four different CFOs in the last five years.
CFO of Joby Aviation (NYSE: JOBY — $6.76 billion) resigned “for personal reasons” after nearly four years and “has accepted a position at another company which will allow him to return to the Midwest to be closer to family.” In June, Reid Hoffman resigned from the electric air taxi company’s board while continuing to serve on the boards of Microsoft and Aurora.
CEO of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC — $90.3 billion) resigned after nearly four years “effective immediately” and also departed the board. Intel will be led by two interim co-CEOs as the board searches for a permanent replacement. Intel has now had five CEOs and five CFOs in the last ten years.
CFO of Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI — $25.7 billion) will resign after nearly four years after the Special Committee of the Board recommended the company “recruit a new Chief Financial Officer and appoint a Chief Accounting Officer.” In August, a report by Hindenburg Research “found glaring accounting red flags” at the company.
CFO of TransMedics Group (NASDAQ: TMDX — $2.29 billion) resigned after ten years.
CEO and Founder of Shift4 Payments (NYSE: FOUR — $9.34 billion), Jared Isaacman, “has been nominated by President-elect Donald J. Trump to serve as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration” and will “remain in his position at the company until confirmed by the U.S. Senate.” Mr. Isaacman has led the payments company for the last 24 years after founding it at the age of 16. In April 2023, Blue Orca Capital alleged the company engaged in accounting games and stock promotion.
Chief Accounting Officer of PagerDuty (NYSE: PD — $1.92 billion) resigned “to pursue another opportunity” after nearly three years. In April, the company dismissed Ernst & Young as its auditor and engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Data for this section is provided by VerityData from VerityPlatform.com
Hedge Fund Analyst Christmas List
The Bear Cave is diligently crafting our annual Hedge Fund Analyst Christmas List – a curated selection of the best free and paid resources for professional investors. If you know of any exceptional Twitter account, blog, Substack, website, research tool, or database, please send it our way. The more obscure the better.
You can view last year’s list here.
Tweets of the Week
Until next week,
The Bear Cave