THURSDAY, APRIL 06, 2000 9:02 PM
- BusinessWire
NEW YORK, Apr 6, 2000 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The following is an announcement by the law firm of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP:
On April 6, 2000, the law firm of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP filed a class action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington on behalf of purchasers of Upgrade International Inc. ("Upgrade") (NASDAQ:UPGD) common stock during the period between Nov. 29, 1999 and Feb. 24, 2000 (the "Class Period").
The complaint charges Upgrade and Daniel Bland with violations of the federal securities laws by making misrepresentations about Upgrade's business. Specifically, the complaint alleges that the positive statements concerning Upgrade's licensure of the Keepered Media technology from Ampex, the abilities of Upgrade's UltraCard, Upgrade's listing status with NASDAQ, and Upgrade's reporting status with the SEC were materially false and misleading because, at the time Upgrade issued them, and that defendants knew, or were reckless in not knowing, the following adverse information: 1) that the Keepered Media technology had never been proven to work on a credit card type format; 2) that Ampex, the owner of Keepered Media technology, had discontinued its use as it was too costly for commercial manufacturing and did not believe the technology had any material value; 3) that the value of Keepered Media technology was so insignificant, its value was not even recorded as an asset on Ampex's financial statements; 4) that Upgrade had not applied for NASDAQ National Market System listing; 5) that the UltraCard had not been proven to store 20,000 times the storage capacity of magnetic strip cards; 6) that Keepered Media technology had only been proven to work on hard drive disks and was financially unfeasible to produce; 7) that despite its license of Keepered Media technology, Upgrade would not have a product to sell, lease or license until the year 2001; and 8) that there was no reasonable basis for claiming that Upgrade would be an SEC reporting company by February 24, 2000, as its auditors had not even completed Upgrade's audit.
By issuing these allegedly false and misleading statements, defendants artificially inflated Upgrade's stock price from $10-1/2 on 11/29/99, to a Class Period high of $82-1/2 in January 2000, resulting in market capitalization of well over $1 billion, before the true facts about Upgrade's troubled operations and false statements concerning Upgrade's product development efforts were revealed.
Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of the Class members and is represented by the law firm of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP (www.whafh.com). The Wolf Haldenstein firm has a full service commercial practice consisting of more than 45 attorneys based in New York City, San Diego and New Jersey. The firm's litigation department has been recognized by courts throughout the country as highly experienced and skilled in complex litigation, particularly with respect to federal securities laws, class action and shareholder litigation. Wolf Haldenstein has achieved recoveries of over one billion dollars for defrauded investors and shareholders.
If you purchased Upgrade common stock during the Class Period, you have until April 24, 2000, to move the court to serve as lead plaintiff of the Class, if you so choose. In order to serve as lead plaintiff, however, you must meet certain legal requirements. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights, please contact Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP at 270 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016, by telephone at (800) 575-0735 (Michael Miske, George Peters, Fred Taylor Isquith, Esq., Shane T. Rowley, Esq., Gregory M. Nespole, Esq.), via e-mail at classmember@whafh.com, or visit our website at www.whafh.com.
All e-mail correspondence should make reference to Upgrade.
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