Yahoo investors may receive additional information about the case by clicking the link "Join this Class Action" above.
According to the complaint, Yahoo is a multinational technology company that provides a variety of internet services, including a search engine, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, advertising and fantasy sports. As of February 2016, Yahoo had an estimated 1 billion monthly active users. On July 25, 2016, Verizon Communications, Inc. (“Verizon”) formally announced its intent to acquire Yahoo’s internet business for $4.8 billion.
The Class Period begins on November 12, 2013, when Yahoo filed a Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q with the SEC, announcing the Company’s financial and operating results for the quarter ended September 30, 2013 (the “Q3 2013 10-Q”).
The Complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Yahoo failed to encrypt its users’ personal information and/or failed to encrypt its users’ personal data with an up-to-date and secure encryption scheme; (ii) consequently, sensitive personal account information from more than 1 billion users was vulnerable to theft; (iii) a data breach resulting in the theft of personal user data would foreseeably cause a significant drop in user engagement with Yahoo’s websites and services; and (iv) as a result, Yahoo’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
On September 22, 2016, Yahoo disclosed that hackers had stolen information in late 2014 on more than 500 million accounts. On this news, Yahoo’s share price fell $1.35, or 3.06%, to close at $42.80 on September 23, 2016.
On December 14, 2016, Yahoo announced that it had uncovered an additional data breach, reporting that data from more than 1 billion user accounts had been compromised in August 2013. Further, Yahoo disclosed that “[f]or potentially affected accounts, the stolen user account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (using MD5) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.” Following this announcement, The Wall Street Journal reported that Verizon was considering ways to amend the terms of its deal with Yahoo to reflect the impact of the data breach and would likely seek “major concessions” from Yahoo. On this news, Yahoo’s share price fell an additional $2.50, or 6.11%, to close at $38.41 on December 15, 2016.
Finally, on January 23, 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported that the SEC had opened an investigation into the timing of Yahoo’s disclosures regarding the data breaches.
If you are a member of the class described above, you may no later than March 27, 2017 move the Court to serve as a lead plaintiff of the class, if you so choose.
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. Your ability to share in any recovery is not, however, affected by the decision whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. Any member of the purported class may move the court to serve as a lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an inactive class member.
Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP has not filed a complaint in this matter. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP toll free at 1-888-299-7706 or 1-610-667-7706, or via e-mail at info@ktmc.com.
CONTACT:
Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP
James Maro, Esq. or Adrienne Bell, Esq.
280 King of Prussia Road
Radnor, PA 19087 1-888-299-7706 (toll free) or 1-610-667-7706
Or by e-mail at info@ktmc.com