Andre Yoskowitz
7 Oct 2013 8:12
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.