SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) - A California federal judge has picked the lead plaintiff and law firm to head class action shareholder litigation against Google's parent company Alphabet.
The lawsuit concerns a drop in Alphabet's stock and was filed March 16. Judge Richard Seeborg initially had two competing motions to be appointed lead plaintiff/counsel but one of those withdrew after realizing he did not have the larger financial interest.
Seeborg said June 6 Menora Mivtachim Insurance and Menova Mivtachim Pensions and Gemel showed a loss of more than $66 million.
"Menora's claims are typical of the class in that it alleges that Defendant made misleading statements about its operations, in violation of the Exchange Act," Seeborg wrote.
Lead counsel will be Menora's lawyers at Pomerantz LLP.
According to the plaintiffs' complaint, Alphabet is a multinational tech conglomerate holding company created through reconstruction of Google. They claim that the defendants made false and misleading statements regarding the company's business operations including using digital advertising to disadvantage website publishers and advertisers using competing advertising products.
The plaintiffs further claim Alphabet's anticompetitive conduct caused the company to face significant regulatory scrutiny and that its conduct negatively impacted the company's reputation and also resulted in the antitrust lawsuits being filed by U.S. Department of Justice and eight states.
The plaintiffs say Alphabet's shares fell 2.09% in January of 2023 and caused them to suffer significant losses and damages by acquiring the stock at artificially inflated prices.