NEW YORK, Oct. 29, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Murray, Frank & Sailer LLP announces a class action on behalf of all persons who purchased the publicly traded securities of IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) "IAC" and the "the Company") between March 19, 2003 and August 4, 2004, inclusive (the "Class Period").
The Complaint alleges that IAC, an intermediary between suppliers and consumers, which aggregates large blocks of consumer goods and services (primarily travel-related products such as hotel rooms and airline tickets) from suppliers and sells them to consumers over the Internet, issued materially false statements in connection with the acquisitions of Expedia, Hotels.com and LearningTree.com, and with IAC's financial reports and other statements. Specifically, in early 2003, defendants began to artificially inflate the price of IAC's common stock in order to decrease the amount of stock IAC would ultimately have to issue to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Expedia and Hotels.com, permitting IAC to use its inflated stock as acquisition currency. Throughout the Class Period, defendants also caused IAC to spend over $1.5 billion to repurchase over 47 million shares of its own common stock to further prop-up the Company's stock price.
On August 4, 2004, IAC disclosed in its Q2 2004 earnings release that its net income fell 24% from the same quarter in 2003 and that it was cutting its forecast for full-year operating profits, admitting that it was being provided less airline seats and hotel rooms to sell. On this news, the Company's stock price dropped from its Class Period high of $42.74 per share on July 7, 2003 to close at $22.80 per share on August 4, 2004.
Murray, Frank & Sailer LLP and its predecessor firms have devoted its practice to shareholder class actions and complex commercial litigation for more than thirty years and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for shareholders in class actions throughout the United States.
If you purchased or acquired the common stock of IAC between March 19, 2003 and August 4, 2004, inclusive, and sustained damages, you may, no later than November 19, 2004, move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff of the class. Shareholders outside the United States may also join the action, regardless of where they live or which exchange was used to purchase the securities. To serve as lead plaintiff, however, you must meet certain legal requirements. You can join this class action online at http://www.murrayfrank.com/CM/NewCases/NewCases.asp. If you would like to discuss this action, this announcement, or your rights and interests, please contact plaintiff's counsel Eric J. Belfi or Aaron D. Patton of Murray, Frank & Sailer LLP.