SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 21, 2021 / Hagens Berman updates investors in the following publicly-traded companies and urges investors who have suffered significant losses to contact the firm. Further details about the cases, including important upcoming deadlines, can be found at the links provided.
Throughout the class period, Defendants touted Emergent's deals with J&J and AstraZeneca to produce their vaccine candidates and separate production contract with the U.S. government. Defendants also emphasized its "proven manufacturing capabilities in place" at its Baltimore, Maryland facility.
In truth, the company failed to disclose a multitude of issues at its Baltimore facility that would detrimentally affect its ability to manufacture the vaccines.
On Mar. 31, 2021, media reports revealed the company mixed up ingredients for J&J's and AstraZeneca's vaccines, contaminating up to 15 million J&J vaccine doses.
This news caused Emergent shares to decline. Notably, shortly before this disclosure, Emergent's CEO sold $10 million of his shares.
On Apr. 6, 2021, the New York Times reported that "[p]reviously undisclosed internal documents and interviews with current and former federal officials and former company employees depict a factory operation that was ill-equipped to take on such a mammoth manufacturing task." The NYT reported that audits and investigations - including ones conducted by J&J, AstraZeneca, two federal agencies and Emergent - found that Emergent had not followed basic industry standards at its Baltimore facility. AstraZenica's audit highlighted risks of viral cross-contamination. The NYT further reported that beginning in Oct. 2020, Emergent discarded five lots of the AstraZeneca vaccine and one lot of the J&J vaccine because of contamination or spoliation.
"We're focused on investors' losses and proving Emergent lied about its vaccine production capabilities," said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.
The complaint alleges Canoo misled investors before and after going public through a SPAC closing on Dec. 21, 2020.
Specifically, Defendants repeatedly touted a three-pronged strategy to generate revenue and growth: (i) an engineering services segment; (ii) the sales of subscriptions of vehicles to consumers; and (iii) the sale of vehicles to other businesses. Canoo also emphasized its agreements with established OEMs, including with Hyundai for the co-development of a future EV platform
In truth, defendants concealed that Canoo (1) had decreased its focus on its plan to sell vehicles to consumers through a subscription model; (2) would de-emphasize its engineering services business; and (3) did not have partnerships with OEMs and no longer engaged in the previously announced partnership with Hyundai.
On Mar. 29, 2021, the truth emerged when Canoo abruptly announced its CFO was being replaced, that it would deemphasize its engineering services business, would no longer focus on subscription sales to consumers, and try to make and sell its own vehicles to commercial operators. Moreover, on a call with investors, Canoo's Chairman characterized senior management's statements concerning the company's partnerships as "aggressive" and that "they weren't at our standard of representation to the public markets."
In response to this news, analyst Roth Capital downgraded the company's shares from buy to neutral buy and slashed its price target, and the price of Canoo shares crashed.
"We're focused on investors' losses and proving defendants intentionally misrepresented the viability of Canoo's business model and business partnerships," said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.
The complaint alleges that ContextLogic's IPO registration documents materially overstated the company's business metrics and financial prospects. Specifically, the IPO registration documents touted ContextLogic's exponential monthly active user (MAUs) growth, claiming its then108 million MAUs was a key driver of revenue growth.
In reality, by the time of its December 2020 IPO, ContextLogic's MAUs had declined materially and the IPO registration documents failed to disclose this known trend reasonably likely to materially impact ContextLogic's profitability.
On Mar. 8, 2021, Context reported disappointing 4Q 2020 and full year 2020 results, disclosing its MAUs had already "declined 10% YoY during Q4 to 104 million."
Then, on May 12, 2021, ContextLogic announced poor Q1 2021 results, including another 7% drop in MAUs to just 101 million, and the company slashed sales guidance for Q2 2021.
These disclosures caused the price of WISH shares to decline sharply.
"We're focused on investors' losses and proving ContextLogic overstated MAUs and concealed known trends," said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.
Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Emergent, Canoo, and/or ContextLogic should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or emailEBS@hbsslaw.com, GOEV@hbsslaw.com, and/or WISH@hbsslaw.com.
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