lean: Soon-Shiong has made it clear he is 'raising funds.' Forbes has repeatedly said it be an IPO in 2015.
Soon-Shiong also announced that we should expect an initial public offering of one of his companies, NantHealth, next year, and that he plans to use the proceeds in part to create a charitable trust like the U.K.’s Wellcome Trust, which was created using wealth generated by pharmaceutical giant Borroughs-Wellcome, which is now part of GlaxoSmithKline.
When Forbes asked him when NantHealth would go public (Soon-Shiong announced that it would happen “this year” and then launched into his explanation of the charitable trust he will be creating. He confirmed backstage that by “this year” he had meant 2015. ”I’m already in next year,” he laughed.
But as an entrepreneur planning an IPO, he has every reason to want to talk up his project. His investors, including BlackRock BLK -0.73%, Verizon, Celgene CELG +0.1%, and Blackberry, would expect no less.
The claims in the lawsuit raise doubts about a planned initial public offering of NantHealth, which has collaborations with cell phone maker Blackberry, which is providing hardware for its next generation devices, and biotech giant Celgene CELG +0.1%, which is using the company’s technology to study experimental drugs.
Notably, the suit centers partly around NantHealth’s interest in filing for a $4 billion IPO.
According to the lawsuit: “However, within a short period of time, Plaintiffs soon discovered that the Defendants were engaged in a multitude of fraudulent activities, which would, if known to investment bankers, customers, and the public, would substantially devalue the company’s stock and likely cause the end of the IPO.
Stephanie Davidson and William Lynch filed the lawsuit against the NantWorks subsidiary in U.S. District Court in Panama City, Fla., on Wednesday. They allege, in part, that the company engaged in fraudulent practices that could have devalued the company's stock and ended its initial public offering.
No mention, anywhere of a reverse merger. It was made up by 'investors.'
“It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us into trouble. It’s the things we know that just ain’t so.” Henry Wheeler Shaw
