Source: http://www.ubiquitisecuritieslitigation.com/faq
Timestamp: 2019-02-18 06:51:14
Document Index: 19667587

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 11', '§ 10', '§ 11', '§ 10', '§ 12', '§ 10', '§11', '§ 10', '§ 12', '§ 10', '§ 1542']

The Court authorized that the Notice be sent to you because you or someone in your family may have purchased or acquired Ubiquiti’s publicly traded common stock pursuant and/or traceable to Ubiquiti’s IPO on or about October 14, 2011.
The Court in charge of this Action is the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (the “Court”), and the case is known as In re Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. Securities Litigation, Master File No. 12-cv-4677-YGR (N.D. Cal.) (the “Action”). The Action is assigned to the Honorable Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, United States District Judge.
The Court did not decide in favor of the Plaintiffs or the Defendants. Instead, they have agreed to a settlement. For Lead Plaintiffs, the principal reason for the Settlement is the certain benefit of a substantial cash recovery for the class, in contrast to the costs and delay of fact and expert discovery; the uncertainty of having a class of Ubiquiti investors certified; the risk that the Court may grant, in whole or in part, some or all of the anticipated motions for summary judgment to be filed by Defendants; the uncertainty of being able to prove the allegations at a jury trial; and the difficulties and delays inherent in such litigation (including any appeals).
For Defendants, who deny all allegations of wrongdoing or liability whatsoever and deny that any Settlement Class Members were damaged, the principal reasons for entering into the Settlement are to bring to an end the substantial burden, expense, uncertainty, and risk of further litigation.
Ubiquiti is a designer and manufacturer of wireless networking products. At the time of the Consolidated Amended Complaint for Violation of the Federal Securities Laws (“CAC”), its products were made in China and sold worldwide, primarily in emerging markets. As detailed in the CAC, Lead Plaintiffs allege that the Company’s Registration Statement contained materially false and misleading statements that counterfeiting of Ubiquiti’s wireless networking products was merely a risk faced by the Company. Plaintiffs allege that, instead, at the time of the IPO, an international counterfeiting ring was already operational and causing substantial harm to Ubiquiti’s financial results and damaging its goodwill and reputation. Plaintiffs allege that when disclosures were allegedly made about the impact of the counterfeiting, Ubiquiti’s stock price fell, allegedly damaging class members.
Beginning in September 2012, two class actions were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of investors in Ubiquiti. By order dated November 30, 2012, the Court consolidated the related securities actions, appointed Inter-Local Pension Fund GCC/IBT and Bristol County Retirement System as Lead Plaintiffs, and appointed Labaton Sucharow and Robbins Geller as co-lead counsel to represent the class.
Lead Plaintiffs filed the CAC on January 29, 2013, alleging violations of §§ 11, 12(a)(2) and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933 (the “1933 Act”), and §§ 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 (the “1934 Act”), arising from allegedly false statements in the Company’s Registration Statement and after the IPO, through August 9, 2012, the latest date by which facts that Plaintiffs allege to have been “concealed” from investors were fully disclosed. On March 26, 2013, each of the Defendants moved to dismiss the CAC. On March 26, 2014, the Court granted Defendants’ motions in their entirety with leave to amend. On April 15, 2014, Lead Plaintiffs filed a notice of intent not to file an amended complaint, and on April 16, 2014, the Court issued an order dismissing the case with prejudice.
On September 24, 2014, Lead Plaintiffs appealed the dismissal of their claims under §§ 11 and 15 of the 1933 Act, and §§ 10(b) and 20(a) of the 1934 Act to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (the “Ninth Circuit”). Lead Plaintiffs did not appeal the dismissal of their claim under § 12(a)(2) of the 1933 Act. On October 24, 2016, the Ninth Circuit issued an order affirming in part and reversing in part the Court’s March 26, 2014 order. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the Court’s dismissal of the §§ 10(b) and 20(a) claims and reversed the dismissal of the §§11 and 15 claims, remanding the claims to the Court for further proceedings.
At the direction of the Court, on January 30, 2017, Lead Plaintiffs filed the operative Consolidated Second Amended Complaint for Violations of the Federal Securities Laws (the “SAC”) asserting only those 1933 Act claims alleging material misstatements and omissions in the Company’s Registration Statement for the IPO that remained after the Ninth Circuit’s October 24, 2016 order. Defendants answered the SAC on February 13, 2017, denying Lead Plaintiffs’ allegations and asserting affirmative defenses.
Lead Plaintiffs, through Lead Counsel, conducted a thorough investigation relating to the claims, defenses, and underlying events and transactions that are the subjects of the Action. This process included reviewing and analyzing, among other things, documents related to Ubiquiti’s lawsuit against Kozumi USA Corp. and its owner, Shao Wei Hsu (the “Kozumi Litigation”), and approximately 60,000 pages of documents produced by Defendants during pre-mediation informal discovery referenced below, including drafts of registration statements for the Company’s October 14, 2011 IPO, road show presentations, underwriter memoranda, due diligence materials, board minutes, financial documents, emails, and documents related to counterfeiting Ubiquiti’s products.
Defendants and Lead Plaintiffs engaged Robert A. Meyer, a well-respected and highly experienced mediator, to assist them in exploring a potential negotiated resolution of the claims in the Action. On May 15, 2017, counsel for Lead Plaintiffs and Defendants met with Mr. Meyer in an attempt to reach a settlement. The mediation involved an extended effort to settle the claims and, prior to the mediation, the Parties exchanged detailed mediation statements, as well as informal discovery through which Ubiquiti and the Underwriter Defendants produced approximately 60,000 pages of documents to Lead Plaintiffs, including drafts of registration statements for the IPO, road show presentations, underwriter memoranda, due diligence materials, board minutes, financial documents, emails, and documents related to counterfeiting of Ubiquiti’s products. However, the Parties were unable to reach an agreement on May 15, 2017. Following the mediation, Mr. Meyer continued his efforts to facilitate discussions among the Parties. Ultimately, Mr. Meyer made a mediator’s proposal to both sides to settle the Action for $6,800,000, which was separately agreed to by the Parties on June 22, 2017.
In a class action, one or more persons or entities (in this case, the Lead Plaintiffs), sue on behalf of people and entities who have similar claims. Together, these people and entities are a class, and each is a class member. Bringing a case, such as this one, as a class action allows the Court to resolve many similar claims of persons and entities that might be economically too small to bring as individual actions. One court resolves the issues for all class members at the same time, except for those who exclude themselves, or “opt-out,” from the class.
4. How do I know if I am part of the Settlement Class?
The Court has decided, for the purposes of the proposed Settlement, that everyone who fits the following description is a Settlement Class Member and subject to the Settlement, unless they are an excluded person (see Question 5 below) or take steps to exclude themselves (see Question 9 below):
Yes. Some people are excluded from the Settlement Class by definition. Excluded from the Settlement Class are: (i) the Defendants; (ii) members of the immediate families of the Individual Defendants; (iii) Ubiquiti’s and the Underwriter Defendants’ subsidiaries and affiliates; (iv) the officers and directors of Ubiquiti; (v) any entity in which any Defendant has a controlling interest (but in the case of the Underwriter Defendants, only such entities that they have a majority interest in); and (vi) the legal representatives, heirs, successors and assigns of any such excluded person or entity.
Also excluded from the Settlement Class is anyone who submitted a valid and timely request for exclusion from the Settlement Class. The deadline to exclude yourself from the Settlement Class was November 27, 2017.
In exchange for the Settlement and the release of the Released Claims against the Released Defendant Parties, Ubiquiti has agreed to create a $6,800,000 cash fund, which will earn interest, to be distributed after the deduction of Court-approved fees and expenses among all Settlement Class Members who submit a valid Claim Form and are found to be entitled to a distribution from the Net Settlement Fund (“Authorized Claimants”). Authorized Claimants are those Settlement Class Members whose claim for recovery from the Settlement has been allowed pursuant to the terms of the Stipulation and the Court-approved Plan of Allocation.
If you are an Authorized Claimant entitled to a payment, your share of the Net Settlement Fund will depend on several things, including, how many Settlement Class Members timely send in valid Claim Forms; the total amount of Recognized Losses of other Settlement Class Members; how many shares of Ubiquiti publicly traded common stock you purchased; the prices and dates of those purchases; and the prices and dates of any sales.
The prices and dates of your purchases and sales of Ubiquiti publicly traded common stock are needed to calculate your claim under the Court-approved Plan of Allocation. See Plan of Allocation at pages 8-9 of the Notice. Settlement Class Members must report on their Claim Forms all their purchases and sales of Ubiquiti publicly traded common stock from October 14, 2011 through April 25, 2013. (April 25, 2013 is when Ubiquiti’s stock price rebounded to $15.00, the IPO offering price.) Transactional information about purchases and sales after the IPO is needed in order to apply properly apply the formulas in the Plan of Allocation, which generally follow how damages are calculated under the 1933 Act. However, you cannot recover for purchases after May 3, 2012, because they were not pursuant or traceable to the IPO, and you cannot recover for shares sold after April 25, 2013, because under the 1933 Act, a purchaser cannot recover based on a share sold for a price greater than or equal to the IPO offering price.
You can calculate your Recognized Loss in accordance with the formulas shown in the Plan of Allocation. It is unlikely that you will receive a payment for all of your Recognized Loss. See the Plan of Allocation of Net Settlement Fund on pages 8-9 of the Notice for more information on your Recognized Loss.
7. How can I receive a payment?
To qualify for a payment, a valid Claim Form must have been postmarked or electronically submitted no later than December 5, 2017.
8. What am I giving up to receive a payment or stay in the Settlement Class?
Unless you exclude yourself, you are staying in the Settlement Class, and that means that, upon the “Effective Date,” you will release all “Released Claims,” including “Unknown Claims,” as defined below, against the “Released Defendant Parties.”
“Class Period” means the period from October 14, 2011 through August 9, 2012, inclusive. This was the Class Period in the CAC (filed on January 29, 2013), when the case included claims under §§ 10(b) and 20(a) of the 1934 Act. The claims under the 1934 Act were dismissed by the Court, and the Court’s dismissal of those claims was upheld by the Ninth Circuit. The SAC (filed on January 30, 2017) alleges wrongdoing by the Defendants throughout the Class Period, and the Defendants deny any such wrongdoing.
“Released Claims” means any and all actions, suits, claims, demands, rights, liabilities, damages, costs, restitution, rescission, interest, attorneys’ fees, expert or consulting fees, expenses, matters and issues known or Unknown (as defined below), contingent or absolute, suspected or unsuspected, disclosed or undisclosed, liquidated or unliquidated, matured or unmatured, accrued or unaccrued, apparent or unapparent, whether concealed or hidden, and causes of action of every nature and description, including both known claims and Unknown Claims (as defined below), whether based on federal, state, local, foreign, statutory or common law or any other law, rule or regulation, that have been or that might have been asserted by any Releasing Plaintiff Party against any of the Released Defendant Parties, arising out of, relating to, based upon, or in connection with both: (a) any purchase, acquisition, disposition, sale or holding of Ubiquiti publicly traded common stock during the Class Period and (b) any facts, claims, matters, allegations, transactions, events, disclosures, representations, statements, acts, or omissions or failures to act that were alleged, set forth, referred to, or that could have been alleged in the Action against the Released Defendant Parties. For the avoidance of doubt, Released Claims include any claims under §§ 12(a)(2) and 15 of the 1933 Act, and §§ 10(b) and 20(a) of the 1934 Act, which were alleged or could have been alleged in this Action. Released Claims do not include claims relating to the enforcement of the Settlement.
“Released Defendant Parties” means Defendants, Defendants’ Counsel, and each of their respective past or present subsidiaries, parents, affiliates, principals, successors and predecessors, joint venturers, assigns, officers, directors, shareholders, underwriters, trustees, partners, members, agents, fiduciaries, contractors, employees, attorneys, insurers, co-insurers, reinsurers, controlling shareholders, accountants or auditors, financial or investment advisors or consultants, banks or investment bankers, personal or legal representatives, estates, heirs, related or affiliated entities, any entity in which a Defendant has a controlling interest, any member of an Individual Defendant’s immediate family, or any trust of which any Individual Defendant is a settlor or which is for the benefit of any Defendant and/or member(s) of his or her family, and each of the heirs, executors, administrators, predecessors, successors, and assigns of the foregoing.
“Unknown Claims” means any and all Released Claims that Lead Plaintiffs or any other Settlement Class Member does not know or suspect to exist in his, her, or its favor at the time of the release of the Released Defendant Parties, and any and all Released Defendants’ Claims that any Defendant does not know or suspect to exist in his, her, or its favor at the time of the release of the Releasing Plaintiff Parties, which if known by him, her, or it might have affected his, her, or its decision(s) with respect to the Settlement, including the decision to object to the terms of the Settlement or to exclude himself, herself, or itself from the Settlement Class. With respect to any and all Released Claims and Released Defendants’ Claims, the Parties stipulate and agree that, upon the Effective Date, Lead Plaintiffs and Defendants shall expressly, and each other Settlement Class Member and Released Defendant Parties shall be deemed to have, and by operation of the Judgment or Alternative Judgment shall have, to the fullest extent permitted by law, expressly waived and relinquished any and all provisions, rights and benefits conferred by any law of any state or territory of the United States, or principle of common law, which is similar, comparable, or equivalent to Cal. Civ. Code § 1542, which provides:
Lead Plaintiffs, other Settlement Class Members, Defendants, or any Released Defendant Party may hereafter discover facts, legal theories, or authorities in addition to or different from those which any of them now knows or believes to be true with respect to the subject matter of the Released Claims and the Released Defendants’ Claims, but Lead Plaintiffs and Defendants shall expressly, fully, finally, and forever waive, compromise, settle, discharge, extinguish, and release, and each Settlement Class Member and Released Defendant Party shall be deemed to have waived, compromised, settled, discharged, extinguished, and released, and upon the Effective Date and by operation of the Judgment or Alternative Judgment shall have waived, compromised, settled, discharged, extinguished, and released, fully, finally, and forever, any and all Released Claims and Released Defendants’ Claims as applicable, known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, contingent or absolute, accrued or unaccrued, apparent or unapparent, which now exist, or heretofore existed, or may hereafter exist, without regard to the subsequent discovery or existence of such different or additional facts, legal theories, or authorities. Lead Plaintiffs and Defendants acknowledge, and other Settlement Class Members and Released Defendant Party by operation of law shall be deemed to have acknowledged, that the inclusion of “Unknown Claims” in the definition of Released Claims and Released Defendants’ Claims was separately bargained for and was a material element of the Settlement.
The “Effective Date” will occur when an Order entered by the Court approving the Settlement becomes final and not subject to appeal. If you remain a Member of the Settlement Class, all of the Court’s orders will apply to you and legally bind you.
If you do not want a payment from this Settlement, but you want to keep any right you may have to sue or continue to sue Defendants and the other Released Defendant Parties on your own concerning the Released Claims, then you must take steps to remove yourself from the Settlement Class. This is called excluding yourself or “opting out.” Please note: if you decide to exclude yourself because you want to bring your own lawsuit to pursue claims alleged in the Action, you may want to consult with an attorney and discuss whether your individual claim would be time-barred by the applicable statutes of limitations or repose. Also, Defendants may terminate the Settlement if Settlement Class Members who purchased in excess of a certain amount of shares of Ubiquiti common stock seek exclusion from the Settlement Class.
9. How do I exclude myself from the proposed Settlement?
The deadline to exclude yourself from the Settlement Class was November 27, 2017.
10. If I do not exclude myself, can I sue Defendants and the other Released Defendant Parties for the same thing later?
No. Unless you properly exclude yourself, you remain in the Settlement Class and you give up any rights to sue Defendants and the other Released Defendant Parties for any and all Released Claims. If you have a pending lawsuit, speak to your lawyer in that case immediately. You must exclude yourself from this Settlement Class to continue your own lawsuit. The exclusion deadline was November 27, 2017.
The Court ordered the law firms of Labaton Sucharow LLP and Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP to represent all Settlement Class Members. These lawyers are called Lead Counsel. You will not be separately charged for these lawyers. The Court will determine the amount of Lead Counsel’s fees and expenses, which will be paid from the Settlement Fund. If you want to be represented by your own lawyer, you may hire one at your own expense.
Lead Counsel have not been paid for any of their work. They will ask the Court to award them, from the Settlement Fund, attorneys’ fees of no more than 25% of the Settlement Fund, which includes interest on such fees at the same rate as earned by the Settlement Fund. Lead Counsel will also seek payment of their litigation expenses in connection with the prosecution of this Action of no more than $200,000, plus interest on such expenses at the same rate as earned by the Settlement Fund.
The deadline to object to the Settlement or any of its terms, the proposed Plan of Allocation, and/or the Fee and Expense Application was November 27, 2017.
Objecting is telling the Court that you do not like something about the proposed Settlement, Plan of Allocation, or Fee and Expense Application. You can still recover from the Settlement, and you will still be bound by the Settlement and any Court order in this Action. You can object only if you stay in the Settlement Class.
The Settlement Hearing was held on December 19, 2017 at 2:00 p.m., in Courtroom 1, 4th Floor of the Oakland Courthouse, 1301 Clay Street, Oakland, CA 94612.
If you do nothing and you are a member of the Settlement Class, you will receive no money from this Settlement and you will be precluded from starting a lawsuit, continuing with a lawsuit, or being part of any other lawsuit against Defendants and the other Released Defendant Parties concerning the Released Claims. To share in the Net Settlement Fund, you must submit a Claim Form (see Question 7). To start, continue, or be a part of any other lawsuit against Defendants and the other Released Defendant Parties concerning the Released Claims in this case, you must exclude yourself from the Settlement Class (see Question 9).
17. Are there more details about the proposed Settlement?
The Notice summarizes the proposed Settlement. More details are in the Stipulation. You can also get a copy of the Stipulation and other case documents by calling the Claims Administrator toll free at (844) 402-8574; writing to the Claims Administrator at Ubiquiti Networks Securities Litigation, c/o GCG, P.O. Box 10484, Dublin, OH 43017-4084 or visiting this website, or the websites of Lead Counsel at www.labaton.com or www.rgrdlaw.com where you will find answers to common questions about the Settlement and locate other information.