The Bear Cave #299

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

Nov 09, 2025

Welcome to The Bear Cave! Our last premium articles were “More Problems at DraftKings (DKNG)”, “Problems at Better Collective A/S (BETCO)”, and “Betting on Tomorrow: A Primer on Prediction Markets.” Our next special investigation comes out Thursday, November 20.

New Activist Reports

Grizzly Research published on HelloFresh (Frankfurt: HFG — EUR 1.06 billion), a German meal kit company. Grizzly alleged the company’s core customer demand is collapsing, citing declining web traffic and lower app rankings, and concluded the company “is in steep decline, obscured by shifting metrics and quixotic pivots.” Grizzly also found that the company’s co-founder “has repeatedly extracted value by selling call options on HelloFresh” and added:

“HelloFresh’s aggressive buyback program, backed by an activist with a history of value destruction, has burned ~€100m YTD 2025 yet failed to stop the share price from dropping ~50% YTD. We believe the accelerated pace is a desperate bid to avert CEO margin calls amid persistent business underperformance.”

Jehoshaphat Research published on AAON (NASDAQ: AAON — $8.60 billion), an HVAC company. Jehoshaphat alleged AAON’s data center division revenue “is currently overstated by ~30-40%” and predicted its data center revenue margin will be well below street estimates. Jehoshaphat said the company’s accounting misconduct “appears to have started with a revenue recognition change made in Q424” and noted that the CEO and Chief Accounting Officer responsible have both departed after selling down their stock holdings.

Recent Resignations

Notable executive departures disclosed in the past week include:

CFO of Dentsply Sirona (NASDAQ: XRAY — $2.23 billion) “will no longer serve as the Chief Financial Officer of the company” after just five months and will be replaced by the company’s CEO on an interim basis. In July, the company’s former CEO “entered into a separation agreement” after almost three years and also departed the board. The company has had seven CEOs and ten CFOs in the last ten years. 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. In March 2024, the company also switched auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers to Deloitte.
CFO of K Wave Media (NASDAQ: KWM — $106 million) departed with immediate effect after one and a half years. The Korean entertainment company that has also announced a bitcoin strategy is down ~85% since its SPAC merger earlier this year.
CFO of Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FHTX — $247 million) resigned after one and a half years with immediate effect “to pursue other opportunities.”
CEO of Primo Brands (NYSE: PRMB — $5.40 billion) departed with immediate effect after slightly less than two years and also departed the board.
CFO of Slide Insurance Holdings (NASDAQ: SLDE — $2.08 billion) “will no longer serve as Chief Financial Officer” after three years. In September, Manatee Research alleged that “claim delays and claim denials account for a significant portion of Slide’s underwriting outperformance” and further alleged that Slide’s “technology claims are significantly overstated.”
CEO and Board Chair of Eagle Bancorp (NASDAQ: EGBN — $504 million) “informed the [board] of her intention to retire and resign from her positions” after nearly eight years of leadership. Last month, the company’s Chief Credit Officer resigned after a little over one year. The company is audited by Crowe LLP and in February 2025, the bank was on the B7A FOIA exemption list, indicating a potential undisclosed SEC investigation. In a December 2017 report, Aurelius Research “uncovered evidence of an insider loan scheme involving the CEO and certain Board Members that jeopardizes the safety and soundness of the bank” and concluded “insiders treat Eagle as their own private piggy bank.”
CEO of Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX — $222 million) “entered into a mutual separation agreement” after 26 years. Part of the separation agreement includes “a cash payment equal to $2,500,000 U.S. Dollars.”
Principal Accounting Officer of NewMarket Corp (NYSE: NEU — $7.30 billion) resigned “to pursue other opportunities” after eleven months. The petroleum additives company has had three CFOs in the last five years.
Dr. Jang Wook Choi, board member of SES AI Corp (NYSE: SES — $930 million), resigned after four years “due to personal reasons.” A total of four board members have resigned in the last thirteen months. The lithium battery company is down ~75% since its February 2022 SPAC merger, despite being up almost 600% over the last year.
President of North America for DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG — $15.1 billion) “entered into a Transition Agreement” after six years. In September, he had entered into a 10b5-1 trading plan “for the sale of up to 1,260,000 shares” of DraftKings stock. The Bear Cave has extensively highlighted the growing risk of prediction markets to DraftKings’ business in Problems at DraftKings (DKNG), More Problems at DraftKings (DKNG), and Betting on Tomorrow: A Primer on Prediction Markets.

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

News of the Week

New Paid Stock Promotions

Notable paid stock promotion campaigns detected this week by StockPromotionTracker.com include FG Nexus (NASDAQ: FGNX — $138 million), which paid $20,000 to Stock Wire News and $8,500 for a promotional email campaign and Blue Gold Ltd (NASDAQ: BGL — $237 million), which paid $17,500 to Stock Wire News.

“Carl Icahn, Nearing 90, Is Still Trying to Right His Empire” (WSJ)

“Two male assistants take turns spending the night and fixing his evening martinis. He works many days from a patio table overlooking Miami’s Intracoastal Waterway. He has been reading Theodore Dreiser novels including “The Titan,” part of a trilogy about a ruthless businessman.
He bets on NFL games every week. On Sunday, he won around $80,000 with bets on the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks.”

“Texas sues Roblox, alleging the online gaming platform endangers children” (Texas Tribune)

“Texas is the third state to sue the platform, alongside dozens of private plaintiffs who say Roblox didn’t do enough to protect their kids from explicit content.”

“FDA Official Steps Down, Sued by Drugmaker” (WSJ)

“A Food and Drug Administration official who resigned on Sunday was sued by a Canadian pharmaceutical company, which accused him of soliciting a bribe and tanking its stock with false statements as part of a revenge campaign against a former colleague…”