TALK.US
id: 590
Talkspace (TALK) $8.5M Shareholder Settlement
Late claims are being considered for compensation, subject to approval.
S.D. New York
Court1:22-cv-00163-PGG
Case number06/11/2020
Class period Start11/15/2021
Class period End10/23/2023
Claim deadlineTalkspace (TALK) agreed to settle $8.5 million with shareholders.
The Complaint alleged that, in an attempt to secure shareholder support for the Merger, on May 28, 2021, Defendants issued a materially false and misleading Preliminary Proxy on Schedule 14A.
The Proxy, which recommended that HEIC shareholders vote in favor of the Merger, allegedly misrepresented Talkspace’s business, financials, and prospects, by omitting, among other things, that:
- Talkspace was experiencing significantly increased online advertising costs in its business-to-consumer (“B2C”) channel since the start of 2021;
- Talkspace was experiencing lower conversion rates in its online advertising in its B2C business;
- Talkspace was experiencing increased customer acquisition costs and more tepid B2C demand than represented to investors;
- Talkspace was suffering from ballooning customer acquisition costs and worsening growth and gross margin trends;
- Talkspace had overvalued its accounts receivables from certain of its health plan clients in its business-to-business channel, which amounts required adjustment downward; and
- as a result of the foregoing, Talkspace’s 2021 financial guidance was not achievable and lacked any reasonable basis in fact.
The Complaint further alleged that after the Merger closed the Proxy was revealed to be materially false and misleading, causing the price of Talkspace common stock to substantially decline and Talkspace investors to suffer damages under the Exchange Act.
Case Status
Accepting Late Claims
Alleged Offence
Other
Suspected Party
Other
Security Type
Stocks
Trade Direction
Long
Payout per Share
0.09
Filing date
01/07/2022
Plaintiffs
Steven Jacob Greenblatt, Montague Street LP, Greenblatt Family Investments LLC, William Greenblatt, Judith Greenblatt, the Brandon T. Greenblatt 2015 Trust, the Maggie S. Greenblatt 2015 Trust, the Steven Jacob Greenblatt 2015 Trust, Ivan M. Baron, Luis Diaz Valdez
Attorneys
Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP (Melville, NY), Rolnick Kramer Sadighi LLP (New York, NY)
Defendants
Douglas L. Braunstein, Douglas G. Bergeron, Jonathan Dobres, Robert Greifeld, Amy Schulman, Thelma Duggin, Oren Frank, Mark Hirschhorn
Judge
Hon. Paul G. Gardephe
Administrator
Gilardi & Co LLC
Court hearing date
10/30/2023
Exclusion deadline
10/09/2023
Objection deadline
10/09/2023
Hearing deadline
10/09/2023
Attorney fee
$2,625,000
Class wide damages
$95,302,506
Trades matching type
FIFO
+$8,500,000
Cash Settlement Amount