BROOKLYN, N.Y. (Legal Newsline) – The securities class action firm Robbins Geller will likely lead litigation against Clarivate PLC, an information services and analytics company alleged to have misled shareholders during a preferred shares offering.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann, of the Eastern District of New York, granted the firm’s motion to be appointed lead counsel on May 18. Objections must be filed by June 1 with Judge Allyne Ross by June 1.
Robbins Geller represents a firefighters pension fund in Boynton Beach, Fla., that bought 375,918 shares and suffered more than $4 million in losses, the firm says.
“The firm’s resume lists multiple securities class action suits filed in courts within the Second Circuit, as well as numerous others brought in courts across the nation, in which Robbins Geller has served as either lead or co-lead counsel,” Mann wrote.
“No parties have offered any reason why Robbins Geller would be ill-equipped to serve as lead counsel in this case. This Court concludes, as have other courts in this Circuit, that based on the firm’s experience, Robbins Geller is qualified to serve as lead counsel in securities class actions.”
Robbins Geller’s motion said it recovered more than $1.4 billion for investors as sole lead counsel in securities class actions in 2020.
Clarivate went public in May 2019 and faces allegations its financial statements misled investors because of mistakes in its accounting.
In June, it raised $1.4 billion with a preferred shares offering based on figures released in its quarterly reports.
"These statements were materially false and misleading," one of three lawsuits against the company says. "In truth, Clarivate's financial statement... violated generally accepted accounting principles, the company maintained defective disclosure controls and procedures as a result of material weakness in its internal control over financial reporting, and the foregoing material weakness was not limited to how the company accounted for warrants."
On Dec. 27, Clarivate admitted to an error. It incorrectly recorded as part of accounting for the acquisition of CPA Global about $185 million in equity awards, the suit says.
"To correctly amount for the equity awards, (generally accepted accounting practices) recognized Clarivate to recognize the equity awards expenses as stock-based compensations charges over the vesting period from Oct. 1, 2020, to Oct. 1, 2021, with only a portion of the liability recorded as part of the acquisition accounting."