LITTLE ROCK, Ark, April 27, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Law Firm of Cauley Geller Bowman & Coates, LLP announced today that it has filed a class action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida on behalf of all individuals and institutional investors that purchased the common stock of PartsBase.com, Inc. ("PartsBase" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:PRTS) issued pursuant to the prospectus and registration statement (the "Registration Statement") filed in connection with PartsBase's March 2000, initial public offering (the "IPO").
The complaint charges PartsBase, certain of its officers and directors, and the two lead underwriters for the IPO, Roth Capital Partners, Inc. and PMG Capital Corp., with violations of the Securities Act of 1933. The complaint alleges that during 1999, defendants issued and sold more than $45 million of PartBase stock in its IPO. Thereafter, in connection with PartsBase issuing its first earnings press release, defendants revealed facts confirming that the Registration Statement issued by defendants in connection with the IPO had been false when issued. In the Registration Statement, defendants claimed that PartsBase had "over 13,000 members." Substantially all of the Company's revenues are generated through member subscription fees.
The complaint charges that the Registration Statement failed to disclose that PartsBase actually had about 3,000 paying members. The Company offered a free trial membership that lasted a few days after which the "trial members" access codes were revoked if they did not agree to become paying members. As alleged in the Complaint, the vast majority of the so-called "13,000 members" were, in fact, "trial members" whose trial membership had lapsed. Defendants continued to count the "trial members" as members, even though they did not pay and had their access to the PartsBase Website revoked. In addition, many of the 3,000 "paying" subscribers never actually paid PartsBase any money, but had merely given a company purchase order for the membership based on promises from the Company's salespersons that the purchase order did not need to be paid if the customer was not satisfied with the membership.
If you purchased PartsBase common stock in or traceable to the IPO, up to and including April 25, 2000, you may, no later than June 18, 2001 request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. A lead plaintiff is a representative party that acts on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member's claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Under certain circumstances, one or more class members may together serve as "lead plaintiff." Your ability to share in any recovery is not, however, affected by the decision whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. You may retain Cauley Geller Bowman & Coates, LLP, or other counsel of your choice, to serve as your counsel in this action.
Cauley Geller Bowman & Coates, LLP has substantial experience representing investors in securities fraud class action lawsuits such as this. The firm has offices in Florida, Arkansas and California, but represents shareholders from throughout the nation. If you have any questions about how you may be able to recover for your losses, or if you would like to consider serving as one of the lead plaintiffs in this lawsuit, you are encouraged to call or e-mail the Firm or visit the Firm's Website at www.classlawyer.com.
More information on this and other class actions can be found on the Class Action Newsline at www.primezone.com/ca