Just the Facts
Twitter and two former senior executives have struck a $809.5 million settlement to resolve allegations that the company misrepresented its monthly active user growth throughout 2015. This settlement represents 24% - 30% of estimated recoverable damages, which is up to nine times the median recovery, on a percentage basis, when compared to similarly sized settlements. The $809.5 million settlement is also one of the largest securities class action settlements of all time, but interestingly, isn’t the largest settlement in 2022. That accolade belongs to the €1.4 billion global Steinhoff International settlement.
| Case Name | In re Twitter, Inc. Securities Litigation (4:16-cv-05314) |
| Class Period | February 6, 2015 - July 28, 2015 |
| Settlement Amount | $809,500,000 |
| Security | Twitter common stock (TWTR; 90184L102; US90184L1026; BFLR866) |
| Court | United States District Court for the Northern District of California |
| Class Counsel | Motley Rice LLC and Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP |
| Class Representatives | KBC Asset Management NV and National Elevator Industry Pension Fund |
| Initial Complaint Filed | September 16, 2016 |
| Preliminary Approval | August 5, 2022 |
| Final Approval Hearing | November 17, 2022 |
| Claim Filing Deadline | November 23, 2022 |
Twitter, Inc. is a communications company based in San Francisco, California. In 2006, the company launched their primary product Twitter, a social networking platform that allows users to consume, create, distribute, and discover content. To generate revenue, Twitter sells ad space to global advertisers that aim to reach a large and growing user base. Thus, the company and analysts have focused closely on metrics measuring total users and, equally as important, the level of engagement of such users.
Plaintiffs allege that, in 2015, Twitter made misrepresentations and omissions about the company’s prospects for increasing user growth and engagement including that Twitter knowingly made inaccurate public statements regarding these metrics and failed to disclose that the company’s actual user growth was much slower. As a result, Twitter’s stock dropped to under $26 per share, down from $50 per share in early 2015.
Investors who purchased or acquired Twitter, Inc. common stock between February 6, 2015 and July 28, 2015 have until November 23, 2022 to file their claim.
