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Pastimes : Investment Chat Board Lawsuits -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StockDung who wrote (619)	9/5/2000 12:17:36 PM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12465

Re: 8/31/00 - Lawsuits and share prices Lawsuits and share prices By Giando Argentina Published by OTCNN.com 08/31/2000 11:47 AM EST Lawsuits from companies against Internet posters, shorters and news services seem to be the norm these days. Companies want to defend their share prices and are with increasing regularity, spending money to file lawsuits, mostly against the message board posters they say write inaccurate information aimed at driving down their share prices and profiting from shorting the stock. I was wondering why companies never sue groups of Internet posters that post false, inaccurate information to drive the share price up, if only momentarily. It would seem that to protect shareholders, the companies would also want to make sure that all false information, whether it is disseminated to send share price up or down, would be investigated. When share prices soar momentarily because of false rumors posted on the Internet, companies occasionally issue a press release stating that they do not know why the share price has increased and why there has been a wave of sudden investor interest. But I have yet to see any company actually sue because of false rumors that drove their stock up. In this time of volatility, and remembering that, we just emerged from a rather strong correction in the markets, some companies have recently issued press releases condemning shorters and "bashers", feeling their share price should be higher. One is even suing a news source for damages because of a substantial drop off in price. I would hope that this does not become the norm, blaming Internet posters, news sources and shorters for share prices. To me, it almost means ducking responsibility from the companies. Nobody complains when a scheme to drive prices higher for a short period takes place, although it hurts many investors that may be unaware of what is taking place. Another point of share price is of course, that even if all is well with a company and great moves forward have been made, it does not mean that the share price will follow. If investors are not interested in the stock or another sector is performing better, the share price will reflect that. However, lately the lawsuit is the great equalizer. It does not have to have merit, and does not even have to have a decent chance of being won. Investors just love a good law suit. It usually tends to rally the stock. I do, however, think that some posters should be sued for posting defamatory statements that are completely false, but I think those are few. In contrast, it would be really nice to hear from a company the next time their share price doubles in a single day because of false rumors and a well-orchestrated hype campaign. But I don’t hold out much faith that we will. otcnn.com