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NEW YORK, Jan. 08, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C., a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm, reminds investors that class actions have been commenced on behalf of stockholders of Rent the Runway, Inc. (NASDAQ: RENT), Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ: CORZ), Torrid Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CURV), and Olaplex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: OLPX). Stockholders have until the deadlines below to petition the court to serve as lead plaintiff. Additional information about each case can be found at the link provided.
Rent the Runway, Inc. (NASDAQ: RENT)
Class Period: pursuant to the company’s October 2021 IPO
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: January 13, 2023
RTR is an e-commerce platform that allows users to rent, subscribe, or buy designer apparel and accessories. RTR offers high-end apparel such as evening wear and accessories, as well as more causal and mixed-use items such as ready-to-wear, workwear, denim, maternity, outerwear, blouses, knitwear, loungewear, jewelry, handbags, activewear, ski wear, home goods, and kidswear. RTR sources its products from over 750 luxury brand partners.
Customers can access RTR’s designer inventory in several ways. RTR gives customers ongoing access to its “unlimited closet” through its subscription offerings or the ability to rent a-la-carte through its “reserve offerings.” Subscribers and customers also have the ability to buy RTR products through its “resale offering.” In the first six months of 2021, subscription revenue represented 83% of RTR’s total revenue, reserve rental revenue represented 7.6% of RTR’s total revenue, and resale revenue represented 9.4% of RTR’s total revenue.
RTR’s business was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in March 2020. As a luxury clothing provider, RTR’s sales and services suffered from stay-at-home orders and the decline in opportunities for social gatherings among its customer base. Between its fiscal 2019 and 2020, RTR’s revenues declined nearly 40% to $157.5 million and its total active subscribers declined nearly 60% to 54,797 active subscribers.1
In the months leading up to the IPO, RTR claimed that it was experiencing a business resurgence as concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic lessened, lockdown orders ceased, and its customers engaged in more social outings. For example, the Company stated that it had grown to 111,732 active subscribers as of September 30, 2021, representing 104% growth since the beginning of fiscal year 2021. Similarly, the Registration Statement stated that during RTR’s second quarter of 2021 (the quarter immediately prior to the IPO) quarterly revenues had grown to $46.7 million, representing 62% growth year-over-year.
On October 4, 2021, the Company filed with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-1 for the IPO, which, after several amendments, was declared effective on October 26, 2021 (the “Registration Statement”). On October 27, 2021, the Company filed with the SEC a prospectus for the IPO on Form 424B4, which incorporated and formed part of the Registration Statement (the “Prospectus”). The Registration Statement and Prospectus were used to sell to the investing public 17 million shares of RTR Class A common stock at $21 per share for $357 million in gross offering proceeds, which was used in substantial part to pay back debt from certain of the Company’s private equity backers.
For more information on the Rent the Runway class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/RENT
Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ: CORZ)
Class Period: January 3, 2022 – October 26, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: January 13, 2023
Core Scientific is a blockchain computing data center provider and digital asset mining company. It mines digital assets for its own account and provides hosting services for other large-scale miners. It became a public company via business combination with Power & Digital Infrastructure Acquisition Corp. (“XPDI”) consummated on January 19, 2022 (the “Business Combination”).
On March 3, 2022, Culper Research published a report about Core Scientific alleging, among other things, that the Company had overstated its profitability and that the Company’s largest customer lacked the financial resources to deliver the rigs pursuant to its contract.
On this news, Core Scientific’s stock fell $0.72, or 9.4%, to close at $6.98 on March 3, 2022, thereby injuring investors.
On September 28, 2022, Celsius Network LLC and related entities filed a motion to enforce the automatic stay and for civil contempt in bankruptcy proceedings alleging that Core Scientific “has knowingly and repeatedly violated the automatic stay provisions” by refusing to perform its contractual obligations, threatening to terminate the companies’ agreement, and adding improper surcharges.
On this news, Core Scientific’s stock price fell $0.15, or 10.3%, to close at $1.30 on September 29, 2022, thereby injuring investors.
On October 27, 2022, before the market opened, Core Scientific disclosed that “given the uncertainty regarding the Company’s financial condition, substantial doubt exists about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern,” and that it is exploring alternatives to its capital structure. Moreover, the Company held 24 bitcoins, compared to 1,051 bitcoins as of September 30, 2022.
On this news, Core Scientific’s stock fell $0.789, or 78.1%, to close at $0.221 per share on October 27, 2022, on unusually high trading volume.
Throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors: (1) that, due in part to the expiration of a favorable pricing agreement, the Company was experiencing increasing power costs; (2) that the Company’s largest customer, Gryphon, lacked the financial resources to purchase the necessary miner rigs for Core Scientific to host; (3) that the Company was not providing hosting services to Celsius as required by their contract; (4) that the Company had implemented an improper surcharge to pass through power costs to Celsius; (5) that, as a result of the foregoing alleged breaches of contract, the Company was reasonably likely to incur liability to defend itself against Celsius; (6) that, as a result of the foregoing, the Company’s profitability would be adversely impacted; (7) that, as a result, there was likely substantial doubt as to the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern; (8) and that as a result of the foregoing, Defendant’s positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
For more information on the Enviva class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/CORZ
Torrid Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CURV)
Class Period: Pursuant to the company’s July 2021 IPO
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: January 17, 2022
Torrid is a direct-to-consumer brand of women’s plus-size apparel and intimates. Leading up to the IPO, Torrid claimed to be experiencing rapid sales growth and an impressive recovery following a temporary downturn in the face of the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in March 2020.
However, as alleged in the complaint, the Registration Statement for the IPO created the misleading impression that Torrid’s impressive growth trajectory was then continuing and expected to continue following the IPO. Specifically, the Registration Statement failed to disclose that the following adverse facts existed at the time of the IPO: (i) in the first half of 2021, Torrid had experienced a temporary surge in demand as a result of changed consumer behaviors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and government stimulus and that such ephemeral demand trends had dissipated and were not internally projected to continue following the IPO; (ii) Torrid was suffering from severe supply chain disruptions caused by the emergence of the Delta variant of COVID-19, which had first emerged in May 2021; (iii) Torrid was running materially below historical inventory levels as a result of supply chain disruptions; (iv) as a result, Torrid did not have sufficient inventory to meet expected consumer demand for its fiscal third quarter of 2021; (v) as a result, late inventory arrival had materially impaired the Company from effectively matching consumer buying trends, creating an undisclosed risk of increased markdowns and promotional activities necessary to sell undesirable inventory; (vi) Torrid’s CFO planned to retire shortly after the IPO; and (vii) as a result of the above, the Registration Statement’s representations regarding Torrid’s historical financial and operational metrics and purported market opportunities did not accurately reflect the actual business, operations, financial results, and trajectory of the Company at the time of the IPO, and were materially false and misleading and lacked a reasonable factual basis.
By the end of September 2022, the price of Torrid stock had fallen to a low of just $4.06 per share, over 80% below the IPO price.
For more information on the Torrid action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/CURV
Olaplex Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: OLPX)
Class Period: Pursuant to the company’s September 30, 2021 IPO
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: January 17, 2022
Olaplex was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California. Olaplex manufactures and sells hair care products. The Company offers hair care shampoos and conditioners for use in treatment, maintenance, and protection of hair. Olaplex purports to participate in the “prestige segment” of the haircare market, which the Company claims is “expected to be the fastest growing segment of the global haircare market from 2020 to 2025.”
On August 27, 2021, Olaplex filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the SEC in connection with the IPO, which, after several amendments, was declared effective by the SEC on September 29, 2021 (the “Registration Statement”).
On October 1, 2021, Olaplex filed a prospectus on Form 424B4 with the SEC in connection with the IPO, which incorporated and formed part of the Registration Statement (collectively, the “Offering Documents”).
Pursuant to the IPO, Olaplex issued 73,700,000 shares of its common stock to the public at the Offering price of $21.00 per share for approximate proceeds of $1,466,445,750 to the Company, after applicable underwriting discounts and commissions.
The Offering Documents were negligently prepared and, as a result, contained untrue statements of material fact or omitted to state other facts necessary to make the statements made not misleading and was not prepared in accordance with the rules and regulations governing its preparation. Specifically, the Offering Documents made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) macroeconomic pressures and competition in the haircare market were more robust than the Company had represented to investors; (ii) accordingly, the Company was unlikely to maintain its sales and revenue momentum; and (iii) as a result, it was unlikely that the Company would be able to achieve the financial and operational growth projected in the Offering Documents; and (iv) as a result, the Offering Documents were materially false and/or misleading and failed to state information required to be stated therein.
On September 29, 2022, a Piper Sandler analyst downgraded Olaplex to Neutral from Overweight, stating that her work revealed that “competition and misinformation pose growing risks to the company.” In addition, the analyst indicated that she anticipated investments in marketing and education were needed to offset the headwinds and that “little room for valuation upside given the risks at play.”
On this news, Olaplex’s stock price fell $1.33 per share, or 12.15%, to close at $9.62 per share on September 29, 2022.
Then, on October 18, 2022, Olaplex issued a press release in which “the Company revised its guidance for the 2022 fiscal year”. Olaplex said it now expects fiscal year 2022 revenue between $704 million and $711 million, significantly down from its prior guidance range of $796 million to $826M. Olaplex stated that “[t]he Company’s updated guidance primarily reflects a slowdown in sales momentum that it attributes to macro-economic pressures, increased competitive activity including discounting, and a moderation in new customer acquisition, as well as inventory rebalancing across certain customers which the Company believes are in response to these same macro-economic pressures.”
On this news, Olaplex’s stock price fell $5.55 per share, or 56.69%, to close at $4.24 per share on October 19, 2022.
As of the time this complaint was filed, the price of Olaplex common stock continues to trade below the Offering price of $21.00 per share, damaging investors.
As a result of Defendants’ wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of Olaplex’s securities, Plaintiff and other Class members have suffered significant losses and damages.
For more information on the Olaplex action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/OLPX
About Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.:
Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. is a nationally recognized law firm with offices in New York, California, and South Carolina. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in commercial, securities, derivative, and other complex litigation in state and federal courts across the country. For more information about the firm, please visit www.bespc.com. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
Contact Information:
Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.
Brandon Walker, Esq.
Melissa Fortunato, Esq.
(212) 355-4648
[email protected]
www.bespc.com
