The Bear Cave #283

New Activist Reports, Recent Resignations, and Tweets of the Week

Jul 20, 2025

Welcome to The Bear Cave! Our last premium articles were “Problems at 130 Long-Term Underperformers” and “Problems in Chinatown” and our next special investigation comes out Thursday, August 7. Building on our recent reporting, The Bear Cave may also send out timely alerts about U.S.-listed Chinese stock promotion scams we believe are near collapse.

New Activist Reports

Jehoshaphat Research published on Enovis (NYSE: ENOV — $1.50 billion), a medical technology company focused on orthopedics. Jehoshaphat called Enovis “an awful business” and said the serial acquirer “has been making a concerted effort for many years to inflate its organic revenue growth and profits.” Jehoshaphat highlighted that the CEO who oversaw the company’s poor M&A streak resigned last quarter and noted the company has not missed quarterly earnings estimates once in the last ten years. Jehoshaphat predicted the company “will continue to generate negative FCF, as it has done in aggregate for 20 years under many different owners and managers.”

Viceroy Research published several updates on Vedanta Resources, the indebted parent and majority owner of Vedanta Limited (NSE: VEDL — 1.66 trillion rupees), a Mumbai-based natural resources conglomerate. Viceroy alleged that Vedanta Limited used sham entities to facilitate sending “brand fees” to its parent company and that the controlling Agarwal family “has quietly built parallel operating structures outside of the [Vedanta Group] via related parties in order to engage in margin theft, and enjoy favorable, non-arms-length financing.” Viceroy also criticized the company for a lack of substantive response to Viceroy’s reports and said Vedanta’s annual shareholder meeting Q&A “consisted almost entirely of extremely long speeches praising [the Chairman].” Read all of Viceroy’s coverage on Vedanta here.

Recent Resignations

Notable executive departures disclosed in the past week include:

CEO of Brand Engagement Network (NASDAQ: BNAI — $13 million) departed “effective immediately” after a little over one year. The company’s predecessor CEO also departed after about one year and its CFO departed in November 2024. The enterprise AI-powered agent company is down ~97% since its March 2024 SPAC merger.
CEO of Diageo (NYSE: DEO — $57.2 billion) stepped down “with immediate effect, by mutual agreement” after a little over two years and also departed the board.
CFO of Newmont Corporation (NYSE: NEM — $64.8 billion) resigned with immediate effect. The gold mining company has had five CFOs in the last ten years.
CEO of Kenvue (NYSE: KVUE — $42.2 billion) “ceased to serve as CEO” after a little over two years and also departed the board. The company’s CFO also departed in May. The consumer healthcare company is down ~17% since its May 2023 spinoff from Johnson & Johnson.
CEO of Rogers Corp (NYSE: ROG — $1.21 billion) departed with immediate effect after two and a half years. The company has also had six different CFOs in the last ten years.
VP of Compliance of Fold Holdings (NASDAQ: FLD — $202 million) was terminated after just five months. The Bitcoin-powered personal finance company is down ~55% since its February 2025 SPAC merger.

Data for this section is provided by VerityData from VerityPlatform.com

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News of the Week

“Are Diamonds Even a Luxury Anymore? De Beers Reckons With Price Plunge” (WSJ)

“The first De Beers ad campaign as part of a partnership with Signet (NYSE: SIG — $3.37 billion) aired in late 2024 and took a higher road. Called ‘Worth the Wait,’ the ads show couples in various stages of courtship, interspersed with images of volcanic eruptions and lava flows. The tagline: ‘Just like your journey, a natural diamond is worth the wait’… The message doesn’t always resonate with price-conscious buyers. Before she got married last year, Samantha Boselli, a 29-year-old publicist from Hooksett, N.H., chose a 3.5-carat, pear-shaped diamond for her engagement ring. It was grown in a lab….
Signet’s 20,000 sales associates were recently required to complete a digital training course that taught them how to better communicate the unique features of natural diamonds to their customers, including their origin story, scarcity and intrinsic value.”

The Wall Street Journal’s comment section further signaled consumers were ready to switch to lab-grown diamonds. Two top comments said, in part:

“The fact that you need a special machine to differentiate lab-grown diamonds from mined diamonds speaks volumes. Under a traditional loupe, it’s impossible to tell the difference. I’ll take a lab-grown diamond any day. Sorry to rain on your parade, De Beers.”

“This article amounts to the CEO of a horse and buggy company telling you that motor vehicles lack the authenticity of real animal-powered locomotion. It’s a last gasp, desperate attempt at keeping their marketing psy-op going.”

The Bear Cave previously wrote about how “the trend of lab-grown diamonds is accelerating quickly [and] will cause a strong devaluation in both mined and lab-grown diamond prices” in “Problems at Signet Jewelers (SIG)” and “Diamonds Aren’t Forever.”

“Andrew Left Set to Appear in Court in Push to Toss Fraud Charges” (Bloomberg)

“The case has already led to some self-imposed changes in the industry as a number of short sellers beefed up their disclaimers about their own trading activity. The case could ultimately prompt new rules in the lightly regulated industry if a jury determines Left’s actions amounted to fraud…”

Kalshi vs. DraftKings?

Prediction market Kalshi announced it passed $2 billion in sports betting volume just six months after creating its first sports markets. Kalshi often offers better odds and liquidity than traditional sportsbooks because users bet against each other rather than a “house.” If Kalshi rolls out sports parlays and prop bets in the future, then it may pose a competitive threat to incumbents like DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG — $21.7 billion).