NEW YORK, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C., a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm, reminds investors that class actions have been commenced on behalf of stockholders of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC), C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE: AI), Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIVN), and Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKBA). Stockholders have until the deadlines below to petition the court to serve as lead plaintiff. Additional information about each case can be found at the link provided.
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC)
Class Period: April 27, 2017 – February 25, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 2, 2022
The lawsuit focuses on whether the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by making false and/or misleading statements and/or failing to disclose that: (1) Ericsson overstated the extent to which it had reformed its business practices to eliminate the use of bribes to secure business in foreign countries; (2) Ericsson had paid bribes to the terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (“ISIS” or the “Islamic State”) to gain access to certain transport routes in Iraq; (3) accordingly, the Company's revenues derived from its operations in Iraq were, in at least substantial part, derived from unlawful conduct and thus unsustainable; and (4) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
On February 15, 2022, during intraday trading hours, Ericsson issued a press release disclosing media inquiries into its business dealings in Iraq. That press release assured investors of the Company’s “transparency” regarding these inquiries, while vaguely alluding to having undertaken its own investigative and compliance efforts.
Then, on February 16, 2022, Ericsson's Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) told a Swedish newspaper that the Company may have made payments to ISIS to gain access to certain transport routes in Iraq, noting that the Company had identified “unusual expenses dating back to 2018” but had not yet determined the final recipient of the funds for those expenses, although Defendants could “see that it disappeared[,]” and that Ericsson has spent “considerable resources trying to understand this as best we can.”
Following these disclosures, Ericsson's American Depositary Share (“ADS”) price fell $1.44 per ADS, or 11.57%, to close at $11.01 per ADS on February 16, 2022.
Finally, on Sunday, February 27, 2022, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (“ICIJ”) published a report on Ericsson’s alleged dealings with ISIS in Iraq, citing a leaked internal investigation that revealed that Ericsson had reportedly made "tens of millions of dollars in suspicious payments” over nearly a decade to keep its business in the country.
The ICIJ report also alleged that “a spreadsheet lists company probes into possible bribery, money laundering and embezzlement by employees in Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brazil, China, Croatia, Libya, Morocco, the United States and South Africa[,]” which “have not been previously disclosed.”
On this news, Ericsson's ADS price fell $0.84 per ADS, or 8.3%, from its closing price on February 25, 2022, to close at $9.28 per ADS on February 28, 2022, the next trading day.
For more information on the Ericsson class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/ERIC
C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE: AI)
Class Period: December 9, 2020 IPO; December 9, 2020 – February 15, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 3, 2022
The Complaint alleges that the Offering Documents were negligently prepared and, as a result, contained untrue statements of material fact or omitted to state other facts necessary to make the statements made not misleading and were not prepared in accordance with the rules and regulations governing their preparation. Additionally, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business, operations, and compliance policies. Specifically, the Offering Documents and Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) C3.ai's partnership with Baker Hughes was deteriorating; (2) C3.ai’s was employing a flawed accounting methodology to conceal the deterioration of its Baker Hughes partnership; (3) C3.ai faced challenges in product adoption and significant salesforce turnover; (4) the Company overstated, inter alia, the extent of its investment in technology, description of its customers, its total addressable market (“TAM”), the pace of its market growth, and the scale of alliances with its major business partners; and (5) as a result, the Company’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
For more information on the C3.ai class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/AI
Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIVN)
Class Period: November 10, 2021 IPO
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 6, 2022
Rivian is an electric vehicle company that in 2018 unveiled its first consumer EV’s, the R1T electric pickup truck, and the R1S electric SUV.
On November 10, 2021, Rivian offered 153 million shares to the public through an IPO at a price of $78.00 per share for total proceeds of $11.93 billion.
According to the Registration Statement, the “R1T and R1S introduce our brand to the world and will serve as our flagship vehicles as we continue to expand our offerings.”
Rivian’s focus on its reputation for transparency and devotion to its customers, along with Rivian’s R1T and R1S, including the large number of preorders and potential for increased demand were key selling points to IPO investors.
Unbeknownst to investors, however, the Registration Statement’s representations were materially inaccurate, misleading, and/or incomplete because they failed to disclose, among other things, that the R1T and R1S were underpriced to such a degree that Rivian would have to raise prices shortly after the IPO and that these price increases would tarnish Rivian’s reputation as a trustworthy and transparent company and would put a significant number of the existing backlog of 55,400 preorders along with future preorders in jeopardy of cancellation.
As a result, the price of the Company’s shares was artificially and materially inflated at the time of the Offering.
For more information on the Rivian class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/RIVN
Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKBA)
Class Period: June 28, 2018 – September 2, 2020
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 13, 2022
Akebia is a biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the development and commercialization of renal therapeutics for patients with kidney diseases. The Company’s lead investigational product candidate is vadadustat, an oral therapy, which is in Phase 3 development for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (“CKD”) in dialysis-dependent and non-dialysis dependent (“NDD”) adult patients.
Akebia’s Phase 3 clinical programs for vadadustat include, among others, the PRO2TECT program in NDD-CKD patients with anemia (the “PRO2TECT Program”). The PRO2TECT Program’s primary safety endpoint was defined as non-inferiority of vadadustat versus darbepoetin alfa in time to first occurrence of major adverse cardiovascular events (“MACE”).
The complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) vadadustat was not as safe in treating NDD-CKD patients with anemia as Defendants had represented; (ii) as a result, Defendants overstated the PRO2TECT Program’s clinical prospects; (iii) accordingly, Defendants also overstated vadadustat’s overall commercial and regulatory prospects; and (iv) as a result, the Company’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
On September 3, 2020, Akebia issued a press release announcing “top-line results” from the PRO2TECT Program, disclosing that “[v]adadustat did not meet the primary safety endpoint of the PRO2TECT program, defined as non-inferiority of vadadustat versus darbepoetin alfa in time to first occurrence of [MACE.]”
On this news, Akebia’s common stock price fell $7.35 per share, or 73.5%, to close at $2.65 per share on September 3, 2020.
For more information on the Akebia class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/AKBA
About Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.:
Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. is a nationally recognized law firm with offices in New York, California, and South Carolina. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in commercial, securities, derivative, and other complex litigation in state and federal courts across the country. For more information about the firm, please visit www.bespc.com. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
Contact Information:
Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.
Brandon Walker, Esq.
Alexandra B. Raymond, Esq.
(212) 355-4648
investigations@bespc.com
www.bespc.com
