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Following a rare trial in a federal securities class action lawsuit, a civil jury late last week found that statements Elon Musk made on social media in 2022 about his proposed $44 billion acquisition of Twitter misled investors. However, the jury also found that the plaintiff had not made the case that certain other statements by Musk were misleading. The jury’s verdict has a number of interesting implications, as discussed below. A copy of the jury’s March 20, 2026 verdict form can be found here.Continue Reading Jury in Rare Securities Suit Trial Finds Musk Misled Twitter Investors

Sarah Abrams

Those who pay attention to these kinds of things may have noted that in recent weeks there has been a rash of pump-and-dump scheme securities class action lawsuit filings. In the following guest post, Sarah Abrams, Head of Claims Baleen Specialty, a division of Bowhead Specialty, takes a look at these recent cases and identifies several key features the lawsuits have in common. I would like to thank Sarah for allowing me to publish her article as a guest post on this site. Here is Sarah’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: Low-Float IPOs and Pump-And-Dump Risk

The filing of AI-Washing related securities suits is by now a well-established phenomenon. But a securities suit filed earlier this week presents an interesting new variant on this phenomenon. The new lawsuit alleges that the defendant company used the announcement of a supposed AI-related “collaboration” with Microsoft allegedly to “pump” the company’s share price just before disclosing an at-the-market private placement. As discussed below, the new lawsuit is just the latest in a recent series of securities class action lawsuits alleging share price pumping schemes.Continue Reading Securities Suit Alleges AI-Washing Stock Price “Pump”

Sarah Abrams

In the following guest post, Sarah Abrams, Head of Claims Baleen Specialty, a division of Bowhead Specialty, explores the extent to which underwriting risks and even claims exposures can arise when a company founder or former executive publicly criticizes his or her former company. I would like to thank Sarah for allowing me to publish her article at a guest post on this site. Here is Sarah’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: Founder Fights

The D&O Diary now has its own LinkedIn page. The goal is to use the LinkedIn page to supplement The D&O Diary’s blog posts, with further information and commentary about the world of directors’ and officers’ liability and insurance. I encourage everyone to visit and to follow the new page. The D&O Diary’s LinkedIn page…

One of the procedural innovations the PSLRA introduced was the requirement that plaintiffs’ counsel who file a securities class action lawsuit complaint must issue a press release announcing the complaint’s filing and notifying prospective class members of the opportunity to seek to become lead plaintiff. Plaintiffs’ lawyers quickly realized the potential publicity value for them…

Regular readers of this site know that one of the continuing D&O litigation trends over the last several years has been the incidence of securities class action lawsuits and other litigation arising out of cybersecurity incidents at the defendant company. While in many instances these suits have not fared particularly well, plaintiffs’ lawyers have nevertheless continued to file the suits. In the latest suit filing of this type, on May 20, 2022, a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities suit against the cybersecurity firm Octa, Inc., relating to the decline in the company’s share price following revelations of a data breach at the firm. Although in many ways this latest suit is similar to previously filed cybersecurity-related securities suits, there are certain distinct aspect of the suit that make it noteworthy, as discussed below.  A copy of the May 20, 2022 complaint in the new lawsuit can be found here.
Continue Reading Cybersecurity Firm Hit with Data Breach-Related Securities Suit

Nessim Mezrahi

As I have noted in prior posts (most recently here), plaintiffs’ lawyers recently have attempted to rely on statements in social media posts as the basis on which to assert liability under the securities laws. In the following guest post, Nessim Mezrahi considers whether statements in posts on Twitter can support liability for securities law violations. Mezrahi is co-founder and CEO of SAR, a securities class action data analytics and software company. A version of this article previously was published on Law360. I would like to thank Nessim for allowing me to publish his article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Nessim’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Why Tweets May Not Validate Securities Class Action Liability

At least since Elon Musk’s infamous “take private” Tweet, we have known that communications on social media can potentially give rise to liability under the federal securities laws. Now, after a company posted an allegedly upbeat Tweet ahead of its full quarterly earnings release, and after the company’s share price rose on the Tweet but slumped on the later release of the detailed results, the company has been hit with a securities class action lawsuit based on the Tweet. A copy of the complaint filed on February 28, 2022 against Affirm Holdings can be found here.
Continue Reading Upbeat Social Media Post Draws Securities Suit

In a now infamous August 7, 2018 post on his Twitter account, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated that he was “considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.” This post and several subsequent messages ultimately were the subject of an SEC enforcement proceeding (later settled) as well as several securities class action lawsuits (later consolidated). On April 15, 2020, Northern District of California Edward Chen denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the consolidated securities lawsuit, finding that the “take private” Tweet and other messages were false and misleading. Judge Chen’s opinion is of interest because of the high-profile nature of the allegations, but also for what it says about corporate securities liability exposure for executives’ social media statements. Judge Chen’s opinion can be found here.
Continue Reading Musk’s “Take Private” Tweets Held Actionable