According to the latest annual report from ISS Securities Class Action Services, there were two securities class action settlements in 2022 that were large enough to make the firm’s list of the Top 100 U.S. Securities Class Action settlements. These two settlements took place in a year in which there were a total of 141 approved monetary securities class action settlements totaling $4.77 billion. The details of the settlements included the two largest during 2022 can be found in the ISS Securities Class Action Services report entitled “The Top 100 U.S. Class Action Settlements of All-Time,” here.
Continue Reading ISS Releases 2022 Top 100 Securities Class Action Lawsuit Settlements List
As 2022 came to an end, many SPAC sponsors and executives, concerned about the possible onset on January 1, 2023, of an excise tax on amounts to be returned to investors, moved to liquidate their SPACs. As discussed further below, concerns about the possible applicability of the tax have now been alleviated, but given the general marketplace conditions for SPAC merger transactions, it seems likely that there will be further SPAC liquidations ahead in the new year. The possibility of a SPAC liquidation raises a number of considerations, including also important considerations with respect to D&O insurance.
Businesses these days face a wide variety of headwinds – rising interest rates, economic inflation, supply chain and labor supply disruptions, war in Ukraine, even continued disruptions from COVID – that are interfering with business operations and affecting financial performance. In some instances, these macroeconomic factors are translating into securities litigation. In the latest example of this phenomenon, a plaintiff shareholder has sued video display systems company Daktronics following the company’s announcement that supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and shutdowns in China caused a decline in the company’s sales, which led to a later announcement of a “substantial doubt” of the company’s ability to continue as a going concern. The December 21, 2022, complaint can be found 
In a few days, when I work up my summary of the year’s events in the world of D&O, one of the stories I will be covering will be the volume of SPAC-related securities litigation during the year. The SPAC-related litigation represents a significant part of the year’s securities class action lawsuit filings. The latest example of this phenomenon is the lawsuit filed late last week against residential home improvement financing platform Sunlight Financial Holdings, Inc., which became a public company through a July 2021 merger with a SPAC. The new lawsuit is in many ways representative of the kinds of SPAC-related lawsuits filed this year. A copy of the complaint in the new lawsuit can be found