SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 25, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP alerts investors in Yahoo! Inc. to the firm’s investigation of possible securities law violations by the Company and certain senior executives.
If you purchased or otherwise acquired YHOO securities between July 23, 2016 and September 22, 2016 and suffered over $50,000 in losses, or have relevant information to the investigation, contact Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP. For more information visit:
https://www.hbsslaw.com/cases/YHOO
or contact Reed Kathrein, who is leading the firm’s investigation, by calling 510-725-3000 or emailing YHOO@hbsslaw.com.
On July 23, 2016 Yahoo! announced Verizon would purchase certain of its assets for $4.825 billion in cash. Excluded from the purchase are Yahoo!’s cash and marketable securities and its equity interests in Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd., Yahoo! Japan, and Excaliber IP LLC.
On September 22, 2016, Yahoo! disclosed over 500 million Yahoo! email accounts had been hacked. The hacked accounts were included in the portfolio acquired by Verizon. The value of these accounts were likely compromised by the hackers’ possession of names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, passwords, security questions and answers. CEO Marissa Mayer reportedly knew of the hack since at least as early as July 2016 but withheld that information from investors, regulators and Verizon.
Between the July 23, 2016 announcement and the Company’s September 22, 2016 hack disclosure, the price of Yahoo! Inc. shares traded up approximately 15%. When the Company announced on September 22, 2016 that over 500 million users’ information had been stolen, the price of Yahoo! shares began to plummet. Verizon and Yahoo! are currently renegotiating the purchase of Yahoo!’s assets, with over a $1 billion discount being discussed. These revelations caused YHOO to fall from $44.83 to as low as $41.35 per share, or approximately 8%.
“Disclosure is the foundation of federal securities laws, and public companies are required to disclose material events that shareholders should know about,” said Hagens Berman partner Reed Kathrein. “We are investigating when management knew about this hack, and why they did not disclose it to investors and Verizon.”
Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Yahoo! Inc. should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new SEC whistleblower 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 510-725-3000 or email YHOO@hbsslaw.com.
About Hagens Berman
Hagens Berman is a national investor-rights law firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington with offices in 10 cities. The Firm represents investors, whistleblowers, workers and consumers in complex litigation. More about the Firm and its successes can be found at www.hbsslaw.com. Read the Firm’s Securities Newsletter, and visit the blog. For the latest news visit our newsroom or follow us on Twitter at @classactionlaw.