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  "documentTitle": "Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI)",
  "authorId": "03_Starboard_Value",
  "authorName": "Jeffrey C. Smith",
  "documentKindSlug": "shareholder-letter",
  "documentKindLabel": "Shareholder letter",
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  "sourceTypeLabel": "Activist investor",
  "presentationDate": "2014-05-22 00:00:00",
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  "notes": "This is a page from a shareholder letter, likely from an activist investor campaign against Darden Restaurants.",
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      "kind": "callout",
      "text": "Darden is essentially giving away the Red Lobster operating business, an iconic brand with $2.5 billion in sales, for less than 1x EBITDA.",
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      "kind": "list",
      "text": "(i) turnaround initiatives within the core brands, including substantial cost reductions, margin improvement, and a radically improved guest experience; (ii) a tax-efficient strategy to monetize the remaining real estate assets;",
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      "text": "EBITDA multiple: 1x",
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      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "When management continued to push forward with the Red Lobster Separation, despite shareholder and analyst pushback, we had no choice but to go directly to shareholders to prove to the Board that we were not the only ones with serious concerns.",
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      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "The Red Lobster Sale is unquestionably a bad deal for shareholders (as described below). However, the potential to turn around Red Lobster was just one element of the value creation opportunity.",
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      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "Unfortunately, rather than pausing or even taking the steps required to hold the Special Meeting, Darden’s current Board ignored the Special Meeting request and instead appears to have accelerated the process to separate Red Lobster.",
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