The Bear Cave #332
Hunterbrook Media Acquires The Bear Cave, New Activist Reports, Recent Resignations, and Tweets of the Week
For the last 332 Sundays, The Bear Cave has delivered these weekly newsletters.
This one is special: I am excited to announce Hunterbrook Media has acquired The Bear Cave.
Since our founding in a Stanford dorm room six years ago, our posts have been read over 20 million times and have sparked stock declines, social change, and even congressional inquiries. We have grown into a community of over 87,000 readers and become an essential distribution point for scrutinizing companies and speaking truth to power.
The Bear Cave made this impact with just one author.
But in the golden age of grift and graft, there are more stories to be written, secrets to be exposed, and digging to be done. That is why The Bear Cave is joining Hunterbrook Media.
Most of you know Hunterbrook’s work; its reporting has repeatedly been featured in The Bear Cave. But if you aren’t familiar, you should know they have brought together a world-class team of journalists, ranging from @OSINTtechnical to Bethany McLean.
You can read more about Hunterbrook, its model, and its impact here.
In the near term, nothing will change for our readers: I will continue to write the Sunday newsletter and paywalled investigations. Over time, Hunterbrook’s team will also contribute articles, both free and paywalled, helping expand our impact.
This partnership will be a win for readers, a win for impact journalism, and a loss for bad actors wherever they may hide.
The Bear Cave’s next special investigation for paid readers comes out this Thursday, July 2.
New Activist Reports
Pelican Way Research published on Hyliion Holdings (NYSE: HYLN — $788 million), an energy technology company. Pelican Way alleged that a recent “~$133mm LOI with VFG Holdings, which had sent the stock up ~150%+, is misrepresented and that VFG is seemingly unable to support an order of that size.” Pelican Way also raised skepticism about the company’s efforts to portray itself as an AI data center beneficiary and noted that Hyliion previously compared itself to Nikola Motors. Pelican Way found that Hyliion’s CEO has “paid himself more in compensation since 2021 than the entire company has done in revenues.”
Umibōzu Research published on EquipmentShare.com (NASDAQ: EQPT — $5.17 billion), a construction rental and technology services company for builders and contractors. Umibōzu highlighted allegations from the company’s largest outside holder of “ongoing fraud” by the founders. Based on its investigation, including “interviews with [former employees] and industry experts, plus a review of litigation, property records, and UCC filings,” Umibōzu expanded the allegations to include “undisclosed related-party deals netting [founder]-affiliated entities at least $77M.”
Morpheus Research published on Velo3D (NASDAQ: VELO — $496 million), a 3D printing company. Morpheus alleged the company’s new CEO “appears to have fabricated virtually every aspect of his background” and that multiple former Velo employees said its SpaceX relationship “has been effectively dead since 2024.” Morpheus concluded:
“Velo3D has fundamental downside risk due to a nosebleed valuation of 10.7x P/S, a premium of 858% to its peers. Velo3D trades at this premium despite consistent losses, inferior margins, 6 quarters of flat revenue growth, and a slew of red flags including high executive turnover and seven material weaknesses in its financial controls. Meanwhile, CEO Jeldi has effectively cashed out by pledging $54 million worth of shares for a private loan.”
In its disclaimer, Morpheus disclosed that it “frequently enters into arrangements with capital providers pursuant to which those capital providers establish positions in a target company” and added: “You should assume that as of the time you read this report, Morpheus Research has covered or closed some or all of its initial positions at the time of publication.”
Fugazi Research published on FreeCast (NASDAQ: CAST — $318 million), a media distribution company. Fugazi alleged the company’s recent 10x rise is due to spurious press releases about Starlink, while FreeCast is actually “a capital-starved company that has relied on related-party funding, converted debt, preferred stock, warrant amendments, and an equity purchase agreement to keep the story alive and maintain market access.”
Recent Resignations
Notable executive departures disclosed in the past week include:
CFO of AlTi Global (NASDAQ: ALTI — $537 million) will retire effective July 1, 2026 after a little over one year. The wealth management firm has had four CFO departures over the last five years and is down ~65% since its January 2023 SPAC merger.
CFO of Wendy’s (NASDAQ: WEN — $1.49 billion) was terminated without cause after one and a half years. The company has had four CEOs and three CFOs in the last three years. Wendy’s rose ~16% this week, following speculation from WallStreetBets on Reddit.
CFO of Reinsurance Group of America (NYSE: RGA — $14.1 billion) “will leave the company on July 17 to pursue a new opportunity” after nearly two years.
CFO of Goodyear Tire (NASDAQ: GT — $1.97 billion) “is resigning to pursue another opportunity” after three and a half years. Last year, the company’s Chief Digital Officer and President of Europe, Middle East and Africa departed amid ethics scandals. The Bear Cave previously highlighted Goodyear as a long-term underperformer, citing its total shareholder return of +185% since January 1962 compared to a +63,200% return for the S&P 500.
Chief Operating Officer of Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID — $2.31 billion), who previously served as interim CEO, “departed following the elimination of the Chief Operating Officer position” after two and a half years. The electric vehicle company has had three CEOs and three CFOs in the last five years and has fallen ~95% since its July 2021 SPAC merger.
Data for this section is provided by VerityData from VerityPlatform.com
News of the Week
“Abaxx calls for probe, hires Paul Weiss after short seller’s attack” (Bloomberg)
“Abaxx Technologies is asking Canadian market regulators to investigate whether manipulative trading occurred in its shares, and has hired law firm Paul Weiss for help in response to a short-selling campaign by Viceroy Research.”
“Investor Who Scored 900% Win in 2008 Crisis Has New Big Short Bet” (Bloomberg)
“Today, he sees a new opportunity as risks bubble up around private credit. But instead of betting directly against the sector, he’s focused on potential second-order effects and is shorting some of the $1.8 trillion market’s biggest backers: insurers.
Robinson is ramping up bearish wagers on firms from Lincoln National Corp. to MetLife Inc. and even Berkshire Hathaway Inc. through the use of credit default swaps, derivative contracts designed to protect investors against a default.”
Tweets of the Week
Until Thursday,
The Bear Cave
Congrats Edwin!