A class action has been filed in the Northern District Court of California against Ipass Inc. (NASDAQ: IPAS), an internet service provider, and certain of its officers and directors by stockholders who purchased the company's common stock between April 22, 2004 and June 30, 2004. The action claims that the defendants violated federal securities laws by issuing a series of material misrepresentations to the market over this time period, thereby artificially inflating the price of the company's securities. The stockholders seek to recover compensatory damages for the loss of value of their stock.
Specifically, the complaint alleges that Ipass provided "simple, secure and manageable connectivity services" by connecting mobile workers' computers to the Web through partnerships with local Internet service providers using "narrowband" telephone dial-up access.
More specifically, the complaint alleges that defendants failed to disclose a major operational issue that occurred in connection with their attempt to expand the Company's broadband service offerings and that the issue hindered access to the Ipass service. This resulted in the loss of a material number of customers and a decline in the Company's revenue, earnings, and growth prospects.
Company insiders withheld this information from investors, sold more than 170,000 shares of their personally stock at prices within a one-week period between $10.94 to $12.16 for proceeds exceeding $2 million. Upon disclosure of this information, Ipass shares fell to $6.91 on June 30, 2004.