Basher Lawsuit -- Legal lesson 101
The lawsuit is frivolous and will be thrown out if it is ever filed.
1. The issue is not whether SAEI has legal standing in California but do the defendants. I suggest anybody that is interested in this lawsuit read up on the legal requirements of "personal jurisdiction". For example, a California court has no personal jurisdiction over me in Massachusetts if I have not been to California or engaged an illegal act in California.
2. Damages. The company has no cause for damages and can not prove damage simply by their own acts. On Friday the company announced a buyout offer for $1.75/share. Real or not, successful or not, the offer is now public record and thus the courts would have to be shown that this offer was in fact altered by the "bashers" they accuse. Fraud and business interference is about damage and SAEI has no cause for damages with that offer they put out to the public.
3. Finally there is the California anti-SLAPP laws that put the onus squarely on the plaintiff to prove intent. SAEI has to prove that what the "bashers" said on message boards was not only inaccurate but that the posters knew it was inaccurate and posted it with the intent to damage the company - with malice. to do that would need to start with proving financial incentive most likely and that one would be hard to prove.
Most companies that undertake this venue do so at a great risk and at a great disadvantage. Few ever succeed and of those that have, they had something solid behind them - not the revenues and history of SAEI. but with the Friday PR, SAEI backed themselves so deep into a corner it will be impossible to work out of it. Can't show damage when the offer on the table is multiples above present value.
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since this is my last post I will finish with another subject:
Apparently there is concern on how this opens tomorrow and how the imbalance of trades settle out the opening price. My opinion on this is a simple one, if the imbalance is so huge that investors here are worried, it would be because there are more shares offered to sell than offered to buy and the levels at which those are being offered are well below Friday close. I say this because if I am wrong and the imbalance is just the opposite, investors would be sitting pretty with no worry in the world. I would suggest that each of you decide for yourself where your comfort zone is relative to buy side or sell side imbalances. Many claim they will be buying tomorrow question is, are they telling the truth.
The opening bell and stock movement will be the tell on truth vs. lie and will certainly define reputations and who to trust for the future I would imagine.
AI
