AfterDawn: News

BlackBerry hit with shareholder lawsuit

An angry shareholder has filed a class action lawsuit against BlackBerry, claiming that the company misled its investors about the future.

The suit will represent all shareholders who purchased BlackBerry stock between September 27th, 2012 and September 20th, 2013.



In the suit, shareholder Marvin Pearlstein alleges that 'executives misrepresented the state of BlackBerry's operations, including how well the BlackBerry 10 line of smartphones would fare against Android and iPhone.

Pearlstein says the company misled its investors last year by saying they were "progressing on its financial and operational commitments," and that BlackBerry 10 was being well-received by developers and carriers. "In reality, the BlackBerry 10 was not well received by the market, and the company was forced to ... lay off approximately 4,500 employees, totaling approximately 40% of its total workforce," the complaint reads.

Last September, BlackBerry shares reached lows at under $6 per share, but rebounded by February to over $17 per shares. They have since collapsed to $8 per share.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 7 Oct 2013 8:12

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• 8 comments

• Mysttic

  This lawsuit is so full of it: they took a gamble hoping to gain when Blackberry's stock was at an all time low after they announced BB10, and then loss that gamble when it flopped. There was no misleading unless it came from stock advisers. Anyone with a brain should have known there was high risk purchasing stock back then, as anyone with a brain should have also known to sell out at 17 a share.

  7.10.2013 08:42 #1

• aw2600

  Investing in ANY stock is always a risk. There are no guarantees - ever.
  
  Blackberry was optimistic about BB10. After many years of development and millions of dollars spent they should be. No company is going to say, "We have a new product coming out and it's going to suck". Unfortunately the public didn't respond as expected. The board of directors at BB don't have a crystal ball.
  
  Sorry investors. You gambled and lost. Suck it up and learn from your mistake.

  7.10.2013 11:13 #2

• Mrguss

  Welcome to the Casino business :)))
  

  +5000

  7.10.2013 15:53 #3

• Mrguss

  .
  

  +5000

  7.10.2013 15:53 #4

• hearme0

  Originally posted by aw2600: Investing in ANY stock is always a risk. There are no guarantees - ever.
  
  Blackberry was optimistic about BB10. After many years of development and millions of dollars spent they should be. No company is going to say, "We have a new product coming out and it's going to suck". Unfortunately the public didn't respond as expected. The board of directors at BB don't have a crystal ball.
  
  Sorry investors. You gambled and lost. Suck it up and learn from your mistake. Doesn't work like that!!!!!!!!!!
  
  Investors often get misrepresented about a company's future predictions/outcome. It's dishonest and misleading. This is not surprising and they will likely win so PIPE DOWN with your "You gambled and lost" (as if they bought stock through ScottTrade online)

  9.10.2013 16:23 #5

• aw2600

  Originally posted by hearme0: Doesn't work like that!!!!!!!!!!
  
  Investors often get misrepresented about a company's future predictions/outcome. It's dishonest and misleading. This is not surprising and they will likely win so PIPE DOWN with your "You gambled and lost" (as if they bought stock through ScottTrade online) I don't think Blackberry misrepresented themselves. BB10 is a very good product. They had every right to predict that it would do well. It's the public's reaction that was the factor here. Nobody could predict that.
  
  With the exception of bonds and guaranteed investments there is always a risk. Read the fine print on a prospectus. There is no guarantee of performance.

  9.10.2013 16:32 #6

• Menion

  Originally posted by hearme0: Originally posted by aw2600: Investing in ANY stock is always a risk. There are no guarantees - ever.
  
  Blackberry was optimistic about BB10. After many years of development and millions of dollars spent they should be. No company is going to say, "We have a new product coming out and it's going to suck". Unfortunately the public didn't respond as expected. The board of directors at BB don't have a crystal ball.
  
  Sorry investors. You gambled and lost. Suck it up and learn from your mistake. Doesn't work like that!!!!!!!!!!
  
  Investors often get misrepresented about a company's future predictions/outcome. It's dishonest and misleading. This is not surprising and they will likely win so PIPE DOWN with your "You gambled and lost" (as if they bought stock through ScottTrade online) well he bought the stock, blackberry had a positive outlook and hyped themselves for the new product... and well ultimately he and all other share holders lost money, Unless there is a guarantee on returns signed in stone, It's pretty much a gamble no matter how you look at it.
  
  I'm not saying hes wrong or right, I think some companies are better at their sales pitch than others.
  

  10.10.2013 10:55 #7

• omendata

  Blackberry quite blatantly misrepresented the situation for a long time hoping that the BB10 etc would rescue them - after their disastrous email outages of 2011-2012 the writing was on the wall!!!
  
  Good luck to the wee man i hope he sues their rich asses off!
  
  

  13.10.2013 05:42 #8